Paladino Unsure if Homosexuality Is a Choice

Carl Paladino, the Republican candidate for New York governor, says he can’t decide whether homosexuality is a choice. “I’ve had difficulty with that,” he told Good Morning America Monday. “My nephew tells me he didn’t have that choice. And I believe it’s a very, very difficult life for a young person.” He went on: “I believe that young people should not necessarily be exposed to that without some really, really mature background first before, so they can learn to deal with it.” The candidate, backed by the Tea Party, is under fire for telling Orthodox Jewish leaders at a campaign stop Sunday that he didn’t want his kids “to be brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality is an equally valid and successful option—it isn't.” His prepared text went further— “There is nothing to be proud of in being a dysfunctional homosexual”—but he didn’t say that in his remarks. The Republican says he was reading the speech in the car on the way to the event and simply crossed that sentence out. Paladino stresses that his feelings are no different than those of the Catholic Church, and he was merely trying to express the “confusion that people have had over this issue.”