Rick Perry: Gays are a lot like alcoholics

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."

The Texas GOP last Saturday endorsed an official platform that includes support for gay conversion therapy, a theoretical practice not accepted by the American Psychological Association.

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