Buffalo wrote: As a lifelong heterosexual, the idea of being able to choose who you are attracted to is so foreign to me. I started noticing girls in Kindergarten. I didn't choose it - it was always just there.
This is an important point you bring up, Buffalo.
I joined the LDS Church fresh out of high school in June of 1978, and probably didn't think about homosexuality that much as it didn't impact me personally. I expect any messages I received in that regard would have been along the lines of what Liz posted.
It was easy to "hate" or be dismissive of homosexuals when I didn't know any.
All that changed after my mission when I went to college as a dance major.
Some of the sweetest people I met were gay. (Am I revealing too much to say my best and dearest friend in college was homosexual?) This was a huge kick in the head for me.
Another fellow I counted as a good friend was a gay black dance student, and absolutely everybody loved him. He was just one of those caring, loving, happy people it is easy to love.
I remember talking with him about the subject one day in the dance department, and he asked me a question I will never forget.
"Consiglieri," he said, "If I told you right now you needed to stop being attracted to girls and be attracted to boys, how would that make you feel?"
"I couldn't do it," I said.
"Exactly. Well, it's the same way for me."
I left that conversation wondering how on earth I could ever have been so stupid.
All the Best!
--Consiglieri