Rick Perry Compares Being Gay To Alcoholism

REUTERS/Jaime R. Carrero

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican mulling a second campaign for president, directly compared homosexuality to alcoholism while speaking in California Wednesday night.

"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, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

"I may have the genetic coding that I'm inclined to be an alcoholic," he continued, "but I have the desire not to do that, and I look at the homosexual issue the same way."

Perry made his remarks when he was asked at the Commonwealth Club of California about the Texas Republican Party's support for access to controversial "reparative therapy" for gays and lesbians to change their sexual orientations, the report said.

Though the crowd contained many Perry supporters, "the comment still drew a murmur of disbelief."