"Anecdote" may not be the singular form of "data", but they sure are hard to argue against, especially when they're first-hand. Jamie is all but calling Max a liar, here, simply because it's been drilled into his head by pop science and conventional wisdom that one is born with one's orientation, and all attempts to change are doomed to failure.

I remember feeling a similar frustration when I was speaking with my sister and I happened to bring up the (thoroughly discredited) correlation between vaccination and autism. My sister then coldly informed me that she knew someone who had watched her child be vaccinated and visibly develop symptoms of autism within a few minutes. At that point, I really only had two options: a) concede the position and abandon scientific consensus, or b) stick to my guns and inform my sister that her friend was a liar of the worst sort.

Obviously, I went with the sensible option of c) laugh nervously and change the subject.

In any event, in matters of sexuality, I'll concede that the commonly accepted wisdom of immutability (with the obvious caveats that sexual tastes obviously do fluctuate somewhat over time, and that the temporary nature of a phase in no way renders it invalid or inauthentic) is likely correct. I will, however, take this moment to quote Arthur C. Clarke, who said that "If an elderly but distinguished scientist says that something is possible, he is almost certainly right; but if he says that it is impossible, he is very probably wrong.".