Ken Cuccinelli, the Republican candidate for attorney general in Virginia, recently made remarks to a newspaper in which he said, “Homosexual acts are wrong.” He declined to commit to a nondiscrimination policy enforced by former attorney general Bob McDonnell, now the Republican candidate for governor.

Cuccinelli, a state senator from Fairfax, made his comments to The Virginian-Pilot when asked about the nondiscrimination policy observed by his predecessor. The Norfolk-based newspaper reported the remarks earlier this week as it endorsed his opponent, Steve Shannon, a Democratic delegate from Fairfax, for the top law enforcement job.

“My view is that homosexual acts, not homosexuality, but homosexual acts are wrong,” said Cuccinelli, according to The Virginian-Pilot. “They’re intrinsically wrong. And I think in a natural law-based country it’s appropriate to have policies that reflect that. ... They don’t comport with natural law. I happen to think that it represents (to put it politely; I need my thesaurus to be polite) behavior that is not healthy to an individual and in aggregate is not healthy to society.”

Current polls show Cuccinelli leading Shannon in the race for attorney general.