SAN FRANCSICO (AP) — Texas Gov. Rick Perry drew a comparison between alcoholism and homosexuality, during a talk Wednesday night that focused mainly on the economy.
Perry’s comments to the Commonwealth Club of California came after Texas’ Republican Convention on Saturday sanctioned platform language allowing Texans to seek voluntary counseling to “cure” being gay.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that in response to a question about it said he did not know whether the therapy worked.
Perry, who has been mentioned as a possible 2016 presidential contender, was then asked whether he believed homosexuality was a disorder.
The paper says that the governor responded that “whether or not you feel compelled to follow a particular lifestyle or not, you have the ability to decide not to do that.”
He 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.”