Far and wide, I’ve noticed that when queer people talk about defending themselves (and it’s awful how we still need to do that), the one trump card we can pull out against whatever numbskull is talking about how ooky queer people are is the biological defense. You’ve heard it. Lady Gaga has a song about it. Being gay or straight or anything else is coded right there into our genes, so you can’t change it. It’s usually followed by blowing raspberries and feeling empowered for a while.

I had held firm to this platform for a long time. The turning point was when a wonderful friend of mine rolled their eyes at somebody saying that people were born gay, and that was really all it took for me to start examining that viewpoint. My logic was that my friend was a really smart person so they must have rolled their eyes for a reason, and anyway, if it was sound logic, it would hold up against my scrutiny.

This is where science and sociological theory diverge for a little while. Setting aside whether or not biology definitively plays a role in our sexuality or gender, the question is this: what does it matter? The subtext to biological queerness is that we are born the way we are, and that human will plays no part in the matter. To me, that pays tremendous disservice to human will, and besides that, what if some people do choose?

What if queerness or straightness is a choice that some people can consciously make? Suppose I woke up this morning, rolled out of bed, decided that I want waffles for breakfast, and that I am going to feel sexual attraction exclusively to women today? Would that undercut my desires at all? Would it make me any less worthy of respect? What if I was genetically wired to be able to do that? Does that still fit the criteria of biological predestination?

The biggest problem with the idea of choosing gay or straightness is, of course, the idea that if being gay is a choice then we can “change” people back to straight. Regardless of whether or not biology factors into sexuality at all, the idea of reconditioning a person in that manner is barbaric and transgresses a fundamental line of human decency. But the institutions set up for that purpose are symptomatic of a larger problem—namely, that certain facets of society are homophobic as heck, and we need to change that.

What I’m trying to get at is this—disregard whether or not we were “born this way” or not, because it’s irrelevant. What we should be focusing on is making this world safe for everybody, regardless of whether or not they chose to love who they love. There should never be a reason to invalidate who you are.

Bulldozing a publicly funded classroom at one of the nation’s best public universities to make room for a corporate hotel is another matter entirely.

Salamanders like this one are a part of the living laboratory that will be torn down when construction of the hotel begins.

But in a manner of speaking, that is exactly what is being proposed here at Stony Brook. The “classroom” doesn’t have walls or desks, but the woods by the main entrance of the university do serve as a living laboratory for thousands of students.

Caitlin Fisher-Reid is one of those students. She is a PhD candidate in the Department of Ecology and Evolution whose dissertation on the evolutionary processes of the terrestrial woodland salamander will be significantly impacted should construction on the property begin before she completes her research in two years.

The 13-acre plot of land appropriated for the hotel is one of Fisher-Reid’s most successful field sites for her research, out of 30 other locations across Suffolk County.

“I consider it one of my high quality sites because every time I go there I find salamanders,” she said.

For two years, from March to mid-November, Fisher-Reid has been taking expeditions into the forest twice a week to find salamanders and take various measurements of environmental factors and the creatures themselves.

The focus of Fisher-Reid’s dissertation, color variations (or morphs) within the same species, makes the site even more valuable. That particular forest is home to one of the best contact zones between two color morphs of the species, she says.

“My project has the potential to generate a lot of long term monitoring of these salamanders and of the environment in general,” said Fisher-Reid.

While Fisher-Reid may be the biggest beneficiary of the forest, its educational significance is felt by many more students and faculty on campus.

“Beyond the scope of my dissertation, the forest is used,” she said. “Once I leave, the forest is still going to be used.”

Catherine Graham, a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution, is constantly looking for ways to provide students with real world examples of what is discussed in class, and the forest provides the best window for doing just that.