openly gay chess masters?

Guess again.

Eh Scottrf, bigotry works both ways. Please don't tell me that I need to bow down to the forceful morality of a "new half-man" or a new "half-woman" who somehow "forgot" about their God given roles and decided to rebel against divine order, and thus castigate anyone who points out their perversion. 

If I'm bigoted against their imposition with all the new "laws", they are bigoted against my sincere beliefs.

Personally, I have never once told any "gay" person what I think of their choice because I respect them as persons and I don't have a problem is they have a serious identity crisis. However, I do speak against the "new morality" that wants to impose their views on me and designate me as "bigoted" or fire me from my job just because I hold a different opinion.

If I don't have the freedom to express myself, then we would have to admit that a mere 3% of the population has indoctrinated an entire nation simply because of their insolent demands.

Eh Richie, I have zero respect for what you say also. Moreover, I couldn't care less how you feel about me. So, I suggest you keep on walking pal, because I have nothing good to say to you.

LOL !

Ah yes the good old "I'm a tolerant person and your opinion and beliefs are WRONG. I won't tolerate you, I will just call you ingorant."

An interesting side question here:  how much is a person responsible for their personal beliefs?  Obviously environment, intelligence, and personality play a role, but I wonder about the extent of each and ultimately how much choice there is.

I feel like for me personally there's been choice.

It's people like golden_knightjoe that make me ashamed to be American.  The sad thing is that his mindset is commonplace here.  I'm so sick of mindless religious zombies spewing their hatred and ignorance wherever they go.  No wonder the Romans fed Christians to the lions.  

My thought is that believing or not believing is not a choice, but an outcome. Whether and how you question your beliefs is a choice. So eventually I think it's not a choice, but indirectly choice is involved.

Consequently, choosing to believe or not sounds like cheating/fooling yourself into something. but that's just my humble opinion:)

At first it sounds like determinism, but then you point out if you have to choose a belief it's somewhat artificial isn't it?

That's really interesting, I'll have to think about that.  That's why I asked thanks :)

For many people I can say there isn't really a choice, or rather, the choice is framed so that only one option appears to be any good. Many subcultures work not only to cultivate a certain viewpoint but to immunize against questioning or doubt. Even quite intelligent people can fall into this sort of thing.

Who cares? Unless maybe you are looking for a partner?

Santasiere was gay (and I don't see why there would be something wrong in discussing the subject):

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=32048

I agree with ivandh. All social norms are created over time and get maintained or eroded by the different powers at play. In islamic countries, homosexuality is not tolerated. Perhaps there are communities where pedofiles are tolerated, whereas in most this is seen as unacceptable. Eating horsemeat is normal for some and intolerable for others. Joking about religion is ok for some and is for others an acceptable excuse to bomb hundreds.. Smoking, drinking,.. Accept it, our planet is one big experiment.

I know for sure a few issues for which I choose. I became an atheist long before I left an extremely Christian environment.

But I'm unsure about others.

I never got to choose being straight, and I do not know of anyone (gay or straight) who felt he had the choice either. My political views almost all amount to "XXX said that and I agree with him" (XXX is changing of course), and although I make the effort to read writings from all sides, I might just have been tricked by clever rhetoric sometimes.

LOL, The point of the picture wasn't to be scientifically accurate....wow.  You must be a blast at parties! 

How do you know all skeletons are men ?

The Golden Knight doth protest too much methinks...

Yeah, communities usually frame it, but I'd like to think there's still choice.  I think not just subcultures but IMO all cultures work to create and preserve a norm and tribalism seem hard coded into everyone (some more than others) to align themselves with one group or another.  I agree otherwise very intelligent people can fall into certain biases this way.

Try looking in the mirror.