Rick Perry: Gays are a lot like alcoholics

Rick Perry: Gays are a lot like alcoholics
(Image credit: Stewart F. House/Getty Images)

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) on Wednesday defended his state party's recent embrace of "reparative therapy" for gays, saying that homosexuality is a choice.

"Whether or not you feel compelled to follow a particular lifestyle or not, you have the ability to decide not to do that," Perry said at a business event in San Francisco. "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."

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Jon Terbush

Jon Terbush is an associate editor at TheWeek.com covering politics, sports, and other things he finds interesting. He has previously written for Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, and Business Insider.