Politics

Sexual orientation makes surprise appearance as campaign issue

Jon Ward Contributor
Font Size:

Colorado Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ken Buck looked surprised and uncomfortable when asked Sunday whether homosexuality is a choice or not. But nonetheless, he said he thought it was.

“I think that birth has an influence over it, like alcoholism and some other things, but I think that basically you have a choice,” Buck said when asked by David Gregory on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Buck told reporters on set after the show finished taping that he didn’t understand why he was asked the question by Gregory.

“In 800 interviews, meetings, events, never having been asked that question before. Colorado voters aren’t focused on whether it’s a choice or whatever,” he said.

Indeed, social issues — sexual orientation included — are nowhere near the top of the list of concerns that voters say they are focused on this election cycle.

But comments this week on the issue by President Obama and one of his closest advisers, Valerie Jarrett — as well as recent developments regarding the Pentagon’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy — have reinserted the issue into the national discussion.

Obama, asked whether he thought that homosexuality is a choice or not at a “youth town hall” hosted by MTV and BET networks on Thursday, said emphatically that he thinks homosexuality is a genetic trait.

“This is a layperson’s opinion. But I don’t think it’s a choice,” Obama said. “I think that people are born with a certain makeup, and that we’re all children of God. We don’t make determinations about who we love.”

“And that’s why I think that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is wrong,” he said.

Just that morning, Jarrett had apologized for a remark she made a day before. In an interview with the Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart, Jarrett referred to  homosexuality as a “lifestyle choice” when talking about the suicide of a gay Minnesota teen.

Liberal bloggers pounced.

“Valerie Jarrett is an idiot,” wrote Teddy Partridge at FireDogLake.com. “Does Valerie Jarrett live in the early 1990s? Does she really believe that being LGBT is a ‘choice’ and a ‘lifestyle’ — and will she really get away with insulting the memory of a dead gay teen with this horrifying out-of-touch language?”

Michael Petrelis, a gay rights activist in San Francisco, was first to raise the issue.

“What an outrage to claim that the 15-year-old Aarberg made a choice to be gay, and that sexual orientation is a lifestyle,” Petrelis wrote. “Did she get her talking points from Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council? It’s doubly offensive that Capehart makes no effort to point out how dangerous Jarrett’s thinking is.”

By Wednesday evening, Jarrett had e-mailed an apology to Capehart, which he posted on the Washington Post’s website.

“I misspoke when I referred to someone’s sexual identity as a ‘lifestyle choice,'” Jarrett said. “I meant no disrespect to the LGBT community, and I apologize to any who have taken offense at my poor choice of words.”

“Sexual orientation and gender identity are not a choice, and anyone who knows me and my work over the years knows that I am a firm believer and supporter in the rights of LGBT Americans,” she said.

The polar opposite opinions by Democrats and Republicans on the issue are interesting, but are unlikely to play much of a role in the national debate as the Nov. 2 elections approach.

“I’ve not seen any evidence that this is a major issue in any race, including Colorado,” said Brian Walsh, spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

“The dominant issue continues to be the economy and the Democrats’ failure to create jobs,” Walsh said. “In fact, even when Sen. [John] Cornyn spoke to the Log Cabin Republicans last month, jobs, spending and taxes were the issues of discussion.”

Democrats hope that in socially liberal Colorado, Buck’s comments may cost him a point or two in a race that is currently neck and neck.

“It certainly will hurt in individual races,” said Hari Sevugan, spokesman for the Democratic National Committee.

But Sevugan made no effort to argue that gay rights will play a bigger role in the national debate, instead putting Buck’s comments inside the context of the Democrats’ attempts to paint Tea Party candidates, of which Buck is one, as extreme.

“To the extent that this is now a pattern — across Tea Party-Republican candidates across the country — it gives voters who may be frustrated with the pace of change another reason to pause and say, ‘Do I really want to send a message with this group of extreme folks?'”

“The more average voters learn about the alternative with every outrageous comment by a right wing candidate the more this becomes a choice election rather than a referendum on the national mood,” Sevugan said.

Email Jon Ward and follow him on Twitter

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel