In a three-part documentary series The Making of Me beginning next week on BBC ONE in the UK, actor, West End performer and TV presenter John Barrowman confronts the age-old issue of nature versus nurture on the question of human sexuality.
For most of us we know instinctively and from experience that we were born gay, and while our environment will have influenced at what stage and how that is expressed, it is a part of our being from the very beginning. Increasingly scientific studies are demonstrating time and time again that the reason for someone’s sexuality is pre-determined. There are a number of theories out there whether sexuality comes from our genes, the way our brains are formed, or from biological reactions in our mother’s womb. This is an ongoing science but there is a growing certainty that we are born gay rather than somehow "turned gay" by our upbringing.
In the series, the Scottish born and American-educated Barrowman undergoes "a series of tests including a DNA examination that is compared with his straight brother’s, and he takes to the streets of LA to try out a theory that the origin of homosexuality is linked to events in the womb that may affect the foetus" according to the BBC Web site. It also features PFLAG executive director Jody Huckaby and three of his siblings, who discuss growing up in a family with multiple gay children.
It is a cornerstone of the fight for equality and rights for gay and lesbian people that it is an intrinsic part of who we are and not some so-called “lifestyle choice”. It is impressive that a celebrity like Barrowman, probably best known in the U.S. for his starring roles in Dr Who and spin-off Torchwood, has chosen to open himself up to this kind of very personal journey for a television series and to take on this often complex and controversial issue.
We see plenty of celebrities, some straight but mainly gay, supporting LGBT causes and lending their name to charitable fundraisers or Pride events, but I think Barrowman is going the extra mile in this case. It is not just performing a service for gay and lesbian people, but also to communicate to the rest of society the importance of taking a deeper look at human sexuality and begin to change the engrained attitudes still prevalent in many communities that we choose to be gay or even worse that it is something that can be “cured”.
I also think the BBC, which has had a mixed record on gay issues, deserves credit for giving this a primetime slot in the schedule that hopefully mean it will reach a mainstream audience that may not have confronted these kinds of issues before.
In an interview for The Guardian (there’s also a podcast) to publicize the series there was one extract which struck me as powerful and brought home the importance of this kind of documentary in the mainstream media (also quoted on Towleroad) as this one:
He mentions interviewing a Seventh Day Adventist "ex-gay" man while filming The Making Of Me, who believed that homosexuality was incompatible with a fulfilling life. "His idea was that you had to have the white picket fence and the farm and he was talking about it like it was something that I could never have," says Barrowman. "And I actually said to him, ‘Yeah, but Ron, I have a partner, I have a dog, I have really nice cars, I have a beautiful home, I have a home by the sea and the beach. You can have that and be gay.’ But he just couldn’t see that."
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