You would think in the year 2015 — over 60 years since America’s gay rights movement gained prominence — that we as a people would be able to at least respect one another’s varying sexual identities. However I’ve now noticed a trend in the pop culture to subtly question or doubt one’s sexual nature.

There is this idea, or sentiment, that one could somehow be absolutely sure who someone is sexually attracted to based solely on your beliefs and not their own is extremely toxic for a myriad of reasons.

For one it can completely belittle and insult the every single person who identifies under that sexual identity and creates the underlying tone that sexual identity is superior to the other. And, as of late, that sexual identity is often not heterosexuality, contrary to our history.

This is where the ever-lovely Megan Fox and Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong come into play.

Megan Fox, a bisexual woman said this in an interview, “I think people are born bisexual and they make subconscious choices based on the pressures of society. I have no question in my mind about being bisexual.”

The arrogance in this quote is evident. I mean how can one be so blind to stick their own personal sexual nature on the entire human population then insult ever person that is straight and gay by saying they “subconsciously chose that sexual identity” yet Megan Fox in all her wisdom somehow managed to stay above the fray. That’s insulting on so many levels.

It discounts the sexual journey and awakening everyone goes through during puberty and says that it’s not valid and everyone’s repressing they’re “true” attraction to the opposite or same sex. I for one know that I am painfully straight, meaning I know that if I were to grow up in any society during any time period throughout human history I would still want men and only men, that’s just my nature. The same goes for all those brave souls who have come out in society that for a long time was unaccepting and sometimes deadly violent to those who are homosexual.

Armstrong said something similar not long ago in a 1995 interview with, “I think people are born bisexual, and it’s just that our parents and society kind of veer us off into this feeling of ‘Oh, I can’t’. They say its taboo. It’s ingrained in our heads that it’s bad, when it’s not bad at all. It’s a very beautiful thing.”

My response to this is the same as before, you can’t be so self-centered that you think bisexuality is the one pure and pure sexual nature and that everyone else just wasn’t intelligent enough to identify it or where to scared to address that part about themselves.

However I don’t believe what these two celebrities said was intended to be malicious in any way. I do believe that were aimed more at heterosexuals and less at homosexuals, simply because people believe that no matter what heterosexuals are more accepted in society and therefor experience an easier sexual awakening then those in the LGBTQIA community.

The truth is yes, those who identity as straight probably do experience a less painful journey into becoming a healthy sexual adult with individual preferences. The important thing to remember is that although people have different journeys and face different obstacles going into adulthood it’s still a journey none the less, and it should not be social y acceptable to discount ones journey in favor of your own, and to cast judgment and proclaim that one journey is more valid simply because one might have faced more adversity on their path.

There is beauty in sexual confidence and our goal as a society should be to make sure that we make that known and available to all those that we live long side with. We eat, pray, cry and bleed with each other yet, for some reason, we have yet to comprehend the simple notion that we are all deserving of a painless and free environment to love and be loved.