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Monday October 18, 2010


Colorado Senate Candidate Vilified for Calling Homosexuality a Lifestyle Choice

By Kathleen Gilbert

WASHINGTON, D.C., October 18, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Tea Party-backed GOP candidate for Colorado’s U.S. Senate seat came under fire after stating that homosexuality, while possibly influenced by genetic factors from birth, is essentially a lifestyle choice.

Ken Buck sparked the reaction after telling the host of NBC’s Meet the Press during a debate with his opponent Sunday that the genetic effect upon homosexuality could be compared to that of alcoholism.

“Do you believe that being gay is a choice?” asked host David Gregory. “I do,” Buck answered.

“You don’t think it’s something that’s determined at birth?” asked the host.

“I think that birth has an influence over it, like alcoholism and some other things, but I think that basically, you have a choice,” the candidate responded.

Buck is known to oppose the homosexualist agenda, having spoken out against repealing the military ban on open homosexuality in September.

The candidate told reporters soon afterward that the comparison to alcoholism was not meant to cast “being gay as a disease.” “I don’t think that at all,” he said, adding that he considers “some element of predisposition” to affect homosexuality.

“In 800 meetings, interviews, events, I’ve never been asked that question,” said Buck. “Colorado voters aren’t focused on whether it’s a choice or whatever.” He said he guessed that “there will probably be a commercial on something like that” from Democrat incumbent Michael Bennet, a freshman senator over whom Buck maintains a slim edge in the polls.

Bennet immediately declared his opponent’s sentiments “outside the mainstream,” a condemnation picked up by both homosexualist groups and the media.

Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese linked Buck’s words to the recent suicides of teenagers who considered themselves homosexual.

“When public figures like Mr. Buck make statements like he did today, kids struggling with their identities question their self-worth and other kids justify bullying. Ken Buck must correct his remarks now,” said Solmonese. Brad Clark, executive director of the homosexualist One Colorado, accused Buck of “spewing divisive, extreme rhetoric.” TIME’s blog branded the remarks a “gaffe;” the Denver Post suggested the statements would “loom” over the race.

However, Maggie Gallagher, president of the National Organization for Marriage, insisted in an editorial posted on National Review that “there was nothing substantively wrong with Buck’s answer.”

“The nature/nurture distinction is getting kind of blurry for those who are truly in the reality-based community,” said Gallagher, who noted that the alcoholism comparison, while accurate, “gave the MSM a ‘hook’ to inject homosexuality into the campaign, whether Buck likes it or not.”

Although institutions such as the American Medical Association and the American Psychological Association have insisted that homosexuality is not a “conscious choice that can be voluntarily changed,” a substantial body of evidence casts doubt on that claim. Studies have found that sexual orientation can be fluid – a finding backed by anecdotal evidence – and DNA experts have concluded that “sexual orientation is genetically influenced but not hardwired by DNA, and that whatever genes are involved represent predispositions, not predeterminations.”

New York GOP gubernatorial candidate Joe Paladino similarly stirred the waters last week by standing up against homosexual indoctrination in school. The candidate quickly backed down from the remarks following a deluge of criticism.

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