Culture

Senate confirms Trump official Rick Perry, who compared gays to alcoholics

Mar 02 2017
Written by Nick Duffy

Homophobic Former Texas Governor Rick Perry has been confirmed as Trump’s Energy Secretary.

The Senate voted to confirm Perry by a 62-37 vote, with many Democrats crossing the line to vote for him.

Like many other members of the Trump Cabinet, Perry holds extreme anti-LGBT stances.

Perry led the charge against gay people being allowed to serve in the military, releasing a notorious ad while running for President in 2012 claiming there’s “something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can’t openly celebrate Christmas”.

While serving as Texas Governor in 2014, he compared gay people to alcoholics.

He had claimed: “Whether or not you feel compelled to follow a particular lifestyle or not, you have the ability to decide not to do that.

“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.”

His comments came after the Texas Republican Convention announced its support for gay-to-straight conversion therapy.

Running for President again last year, the former Governor launched an attack on the Boy Scouts of America after the organisation opted to end a ban on openly gay scoutmasters.

Perry had claimed: “Openly active gays, particularly advocates, present a problem. Because gay activism is central to their lives, it would unavoidably be a topic of conversation within a Scout troop. This would distract from the mission of scouting.”

Asked whether he would retract the comments, he insisted: “I believe that scouting would be better off if they didn’t have openly gay scoutmasters.”