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By: DYANA BAGBY
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It was the gaffe heard ’round the gay world: “It’s a choice.”
With those three words, Democratic presidential candidate Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico triggered a collective gasp of dismay and shock from gays watching the Logo televised debate sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign Aug. 9.
Visibly stunned by his answer, panelist and lesbian rocker Melissa Etheridge said Richardson must have misunderstood her question of whether or not homosexuality is a choice. She then rephrased her question by asking him if he thinks “a homosexual is born that way, or do you think that around seventh grade, we go, ‘Ooo, I want to be gay.’”
Richardson backtracked a bit clumsily.
“I see gays and lesbians as people, as a matter of human decency," he said. "I see it as a matter of love and companionship and people loving each other. You know, I don’t like to categorize people. I don’t like to answer definitions like that, that you know perhaps are grounded in science or something else that I don’t understand.”
Richardson’s camp quickly followed up with an apology and a press release stating “he [does] not believe that sexual orientation or gender identity happen by choice” and “that no matter how it happens, we are all equal and should be treated that way under the law.”
The damage control didn’t end there. Congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) jumped into the controversy by issuing a statement praising Richardson’s long history of fighting for equal rights for gays.
"Gov. Bill Richardson's apology for the mistake he made in saying that sexual orientation is a choice did not surprise me, because he has been a strong supporter of our right to be treated fairly throughout his public career,” Frank said.
POLITICAL FODDER
A Gallup poll conducted in May showed 42 percent of the 1,003 adults surveyed believe homosexuality is biologically determined — the highest percentage in 30 years.
And according to a Gallup press release on the poll, “substantive attitudes about homosexual rights are closely related to views on this question (on whether or not people are born gay).”
Gallup reported that four in five of those who believe homosexuality is congenital think it should is acceptable. Only 30 percent of those who think homosexuality is caused by environmental factors agree.
"Most people who are gay or lesbian can already tell you that sexual orientation is not a choice,” said Christopher Johnson, HRC director of public affairs. “Fortunately, a growing number of Americans believe that, too. Over the past couple of years, that has become a plurality. That's important because support for GLBT Americans is much higher among those who believe we are born gay."
Author Chandler Burr wrote his first book, “A Separate Creation: The Search for the Biological Origins of Sexual Orientation,” in 1996 based on his March 1993 cover story in The Atlantic, "Homosexuality and Biology."
“This question [are we born gay?] has to remain in the political arena because of the simple fact this is what the American people care about,” said Burr, also a perfume critic for the New York Times. “This is the question that determines how people vote on issues of gay rights.”
Whether or not people believe we are born gay is a firm predictor of how they will vote on equal rights, he added, even if we wish it wasn’t so.
“Maybe they shouldn’t vote that way — maybe people should vote in favor of our rights because of personal choice or personal liberty, but the truth is that is not the political reality,” he said.
“And I’d rather deal with political reality. The science cuts in our favor. We should help the American voter with information so they will vote to give us equal rights," he said.
IRRELEVANT QUESTION?
But there are others who believe they can choose to be gay, that there is nothing biological about their choice, and pinning gay rights on a gay gene is the wrong path to take.
“Bill Richardson was absolutely right to point out that the question of whether we chose to be queer is completely irrelevant to the fact that we and our relationships deserve equal respect,” said Gayle Madwin, 31, of Sacramento, Calif.
Madwin founded queerbychoice.com, a website resource for people who say they choose to be gay, bisexual or lesbian.
“It was irresponsible of the other candidates to glibly assert that it's definitely inborn, and not acknowledge that even the best scientists in the world haven't resolved that debate yet,” she added.
Vera Whisman, author of “Queer by Choice: Lesbians, Gay Men, and the Politics of Identity,” watched the HRC/Logo debate and said while it was ...
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