PHOTO: AP
Earlier this week, former Minnesota Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty expressed his admiration for Lady Gaga "even though she’s a little unusual." The anti-gay Republican presidential candidate admitted that he enjoys her LGBT anthem "Born This Way" but claims that scientists are "in dispute" over a genetic cause of homosexuality.
From the transcript:
GREGORY: Is being gay a choice?
PAWLENTY: The science in that regard is in dispute. I mean, the scientists work on that and try to figure out if it's behavioral...
GREGORY: What do you think?
PAWLENTY: Well, I defer to the scientists in that regard.
GREGORY: So you, you think it's not a choice. That you are, as Lady Gaga says, you're born that way.
PAWLENTY: There's no scientific conclusion that it's genetic. We don't know that.
There is actually very little "dispute" among health and medical professionals. "All major medical professional organizations agree that sexual orientation is not a choice and cannot be changed, from gay to straight or otherwise," reports Think Progress.
Pawlenty has promised to reinstate 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' if elected president. Pawlenty also vetoed a bill that would have allowed same sex partners the right to make burial decisions
Perhaps Pawlenty believes that promoting his anti-gay credentials will help him in the socially conservative Iowa Republican Straw Poll. Pawlenty has been polling poorly in Iowa and experts believe a poor showing on August 13 could "doom" his presidential campaign.
Via Think Progress, watch the clip WHEN YOU JUMP ...
Let's say for argument sake, people choose to be gay, no one was born gay, does that mean because they choose to be gay they should be denied equal rights. Therefore, if gay people choose to be straight, then they can have equal rights and they will no longer be bullied, raped, beaten up murder and won't have to think about suicide for being gay? So homophobic people are helping gays "see that light" through their Christian beliefs and selected scripture interpretations in The Bible by forcing gays through violent acts to choose to be like them. How stupid does that sound?
Posted by: Cleon | 10 July 2011 at 16:19
There is no such thing as an ex gay, its just in you to be gay. People that think they are suddenly straight are lying to themselves, and can be caught checking out some ass on the low!
Posted by: ThatREALtea | 10 July 2011 at 17:21
I will never understand why anyone who is not GAY really care and fight so hard to deprive or give expert testimony on something they CLAIM to not be. If you are straight, stick to what that has to offer and leave the GAY lifestyle and all that comes with that to gay folk. I really think and have seen with my own life experiences that the ones who cry the loudess about gay being wrong and don't agree with all things gay are the biggest closet cases on earth.
Posted by: BLACK | 10 July 2011 at 23:42
add him to the list of no substance idiots. He kept answering all questions with the same line - look at my record. he wont be around much longer
Posted by: MDS | 11 July 2011 at 08:41
How do Log Cabin Republicans justify voting for candidates who either make these statements or do not repudiate the ridiculous statements of others?
I know they want to "change the party from within," but it's 2011 -- and I don't see people who claim to deserve being elected to high office bringing someone out from behind a curtain who said "Yes, I chose to be gay." Taa-daa!
Like Michele Bachmann who claims that many Nobel Prize winners do not support the theory of evolution, she couldn't name or "produce" a single one.
If the mainstream media was so "liberal!" as these fools claim, wouldn't the media be pressing them hard to substantiate such wild statements? Wouldn't the "liberal!" mainstream media be hounding Donald Trump to reveal his findings on his personal investigation into Obama's background and "real" birth certificate?
The notion that this doesn't appear to be a contradiction to so many voters concerned with integrity (and in this election, "real world experience!"), let along occur to them to push back on substantiating these wild claims, leaves me speechless (except for this rant).
It just boggles the mind.
Posted by: Kenneth | 11 July 2011 at 10:48
Sorry, Right-wringers and church folks but my life style at the comment consists of me eating, sleeping and possibly watching various seasons of The Simpsons and The-X Files on DVD before schools starts. These people demonstrate a disgusting amount of condescension, self-righteousness, and holier than thou complexities...All because they're Christian and there for better than anybody else? Good ol' fashion White Supremacy.
Posted by: Account Deleted | 11 July 2011 at 14:24
Pawlenty's comments are such a transparent ploy to position himself to the right of some of the nuts now vying for the GOP presidential nomination that they're laughable. He knows full well that homosexual orientation is not a choice and that the science is not in doubt. He also knows he's placing himself increasingly outside the mainstream of evolving contemporary American public attitudes about homosexuality and LGBTQ issues, but it's for nothing, because he won't win the nomination. Pawlenty is a joke. And a loser to boot.
Posted by: jstheater | 11 July 2011 at 19:33
Well, he's a homophobe. But technically he IS right that the scientific jury is still out on whether it's GENETIC. That's not the same on whether it's a choice. It may be determined in the womb or early in life, which is different from "genetic".
Posted by: Colin | 11 July 2011 at 21:46