Huckabee on Being Gay: 'The Behavior One Practices Is a Choice'  | News | Advocate.com

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January 02, 2008
Huckabee on Being Gay: 'The Behavior One Practices Is a Choice'

Former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee appeared on Meet the Press with Tim Russert Sunday, explaining that he doesn't believe homosexuality is linked to sadomasochism, pedophilia, or necrophilia. "But one thing I know, that the behavior one practices is a choice," said Huckabee, even if "we may have certain tendencies."

Huckabee and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney are equal frontrunners in the January 3 Iowa caucus and the January 19 South Carolina caucus, according to Rasmussen polls. Huckabee trails Romney, Sen. John McCain, and Rudy Giuliani among those planning to vote in the New Hampshire caucus, on January 8.

Below are excerpts from the show’s transcript:

MR. RUSSERT: Peggy Noonan, a woman of faith who writes for The Wall Street Journal, said that sometimes it appears your philosophy is "This is what God wants," and that doesn't encourage discussion, it squelches it. And this is what you wrote in your book, Kids Who Kill, in 1998: "It is now difficult to keep track of the vast array of publicly endorsed and institutionally supported aberrations -- from homosexuality and pedophilia to sadomasochism and necrophilia." Why would you link homosexuality with sadomasochism, pedophilia, and necrophilia?

GOV. HUCKABEE: Well, what I was pointing out is all of these are deviations from what has been the traditional concept of sexual behavior and men and women having children, raising those children in the context of a, of a traditional marriage and family. And, again, taken out of the larger context of that book, speaking about how so many of our social institutions have been broken down.

MR. RUSSERT: But do you think homosexuality is equivalent to pedophilia...

GOV. HUCKABEE: Oh, of course not.

MR. RUSSERT: ...or sadomasochism?

GOV. HUCKABEE: No, of course not. I didn't say...

MR. RUSSERT: But this is what concerns people. This, this is what you did say about homosexuality: "I feel homosexuality is an aberrant, unnatural, and sinful lifestyle." That's millions of Americans.

GOV. HUCKABEE: Tim, understand, when a Christian speaks of sin, a Christian says all of us are sinners. I'm a sinner, everybody's a sinner. What one's sin is, means it's missing the mark. It's missing the bull's eye, the perfect point. I miss it every day; we all do. The perfection of God is seen in a marriage in which one man, one woman live together as a couple committed to each other as life partners. Now, even married couples don't do that perfectly, so sin is not some act of equating people with being murderers or rapists...

MR. RUSSERT: But when you say aberrant or unnatural, do you believe you're born gay or you choose to be gay?

GOV. HUCKABEE: I don't know whether people are born that way. People who are gay say that they're born that way. But one thing I know, that the behavior one practices is a choice. We may have certain tendencies, but how we behave and how we carry out our behavior -- but the important issue that I want to address, because I think when you bring up the faith question, Tim, I've been asked more about my faith than any person running for president. I'm OK with that. I hope I've answered these questions very candidly and very honestly. I think it's important for us to talk about it. But the most important thing is to find out, does our faith influence our public policy and how? I've never tried to rewrite science textbooks. I've never tried to come out with some way of imposing a doctrinaire Christian perspective in a way that is really against the Constitution. I've never done that. (The Advocate)

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