Businessman Herman Cain, whose presidential stock rose following his surprise win in a recent Florida Republican straw poll, went before the women of The View Tuesday and said that being gay is a choice. "You show me the science that says it's not," he said. Almost immediately, R. Clarke Cooper, head of Log Cabin Republicans, issued a statement saying the group would be happy to show Cain the science. "The claim that a person chooses to be gay or lesbian has been discredited by every major professional medical organization, starting with the American Psychological Association and the American Medical Association," Cooper said. "An individual's orientation is no more a choice than the color of his skin or whether he is left-handed, and too many people have been hurt because of failed attempts to change the way they were born."
Gay-is-a-choice was debunked long ago and is a position held today mainly by fringe conservatives and people who are not educated on the subject. That the crop of Republicans hoping to unseat President Barack Obama next year is made up almost entirely of extreme candidates might be one of the few encouraging signs to the president's re-election chances, given that the economy is in the dumps and he is unable to move legislation that would benefit the unemployed, working poor, and middle class.
We found Cain's comments Tuesday somewhat surprising because just last Sunday he was on ABC's This Week, where he opined that he should have spoken out against the rabid booing that followed a gay soldier's question on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" during a recent GOP debate in Orlando. The soldier was booed when he asked, via video, whether the candidates would try to reverse the repeal of DADT should they be elected. The incident marked the third time in as many debates when audiences have exhibited bad behavior and hateful sentiments. In one case, someone shouted "yeah" when candidate Ron Paul was asked a series of questions about health care and the possibility that a sick patient without insurance should be left to die. Before that, candidate Rick Perry, the governor of Texas, received cheers when a question pointed out that since he took office in 2000, he has overseen a record 234 executions.
But the booing of the gay soldier, who is currently serving in Iraq, marked a new low by GOP debate audiences and the candidates themselves. One of the qualities voters look for in a president is leadership for all Americans, which none of the nine candidates on the stage that night in Florida exhibited. One of them should have spoken up, and reminded the homophobes in the audience that this young man was serving his country. And if none of the Republican candidates can do that, they're not leaders. Say what you will about Obama – and we've said plenty over the last three years – but it's clear that no one in the GOP field is up to the task of running our diverse country. The candidates are so concerned with not offending the tea party ideologues that common sense goes out the window. Michelle Bachmann told a radio caller "Thanks" when he said he'd vote for convicted murderer Charles Manson over Obama. The list goes on and on. Don't these people hear what they're saying?
That a minority within the Republican Party can exert such outsized importance also speaks volumes about the state of the party: there is no room for compromise or meaningful discussion.
There's another GOP debate Tuesday – National Coming Out Day – in New Hampshire. Would it be too much to expect to see some leadership from the candidates if the booing starts? And we hope by then Cain will have met with Log Cabin and educated himself on sexual orientation and gender identity. We know it's a lot to ask, but someone's got to raise these issues.