Senate candidate compares homosexuality to alcoholism

Republican Ken Buck tells NBC being gay is a choice, though "birth has an influence over it, like alcoholism and some other things."

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Ken Buck 311 AP (photo credit: Associated Press)
Ken Buck 311 AP
(photo credit: Associated Press)
Republican Senate candidate Ken Buck on Sunday compared homosexuality to alcoholism, during an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press."
When asked to clarify his position on the US army's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, the Colorado candidate stated his opinion that being gay is a choice, though genetics may have some "influence."
"I guess you can choose who your partner is... I think I think that birth has an influence over it, like alcoholism and some other things, but I think that basically, you have a choice," he told NBC's David Gregory.
Buck's comments came days after Carl Paladino, the conservative Republican candidate to be governor of New York told Orthodox Jewish leaders that he does not want children "brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality" is acceptable.
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Paladino, a multimillionaire developer from Buffalo, New York who has received strong support from conservative-libertarian "tea party" activists, made the comments at a synagogue in Brooklyn's Williamsburg section while trying to strike a contrast between himself and his Democratic rival, state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. Paladino said he chose not to march in this summer's gay pride parade but his opponent did.
AP contributed to this report