Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Monday that he isn’t sure whether conversion therapy can turn a gay person straight, a little over a week after the Texas GOP endorsed the idea in its party platform.
Mr. Perry, who ran for president in 2012 and is considering another bid in 2016, raised eyebrows last week after he compared gays to alcoholics, suggesting that homosexuals can change their sexual orientation in the same way that drinkers put down the bottle.
“I understand people have different opinions about that,” Mr. Perry said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” when asked about his comments.
Pressed on whether therapy could change a heterosexual into a homosexual or vice versa, Mr. Perry said, “I don’t know.”
“The fact is we will leave that to the psychologists and doctors,” he said.
During an appearance in San Francisco last week, Mr. Perry was asked whether he thinks homosexuality is a disorder.
“Whether or not you feel compelled to follow a particular lifestyle or not, you have the ability to decide not to do that,” Mr. Perry said. “I may have the genetic coding that I’m inclined to be an alcoholic, but I have the desire not to do that, and I look at the homosexual issue the same way.”
The remarks came days after the Texas Republican party adopted a party platform that includes support of “reparative therapy,” which is built on the belief that homosexuality can be cured through treatment.
Mr. Perry, said that issue of marriage should be left to the states. Mr. Perry also has supported an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would outlaw gay marriage.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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