Gay rights group One Colorado hand delivered a petition to GOP U.S. Senate candidate Ken Buck’s Denver office Tuesday bearing 1,500 signatures requesting he retract his statement that homosexuality is mostly a lifestyle choice. On Meet the Press two Sundays ago, Buck said genetics might predispose humans to same-sex attraction but that they might resist such attractions the way alcoholics resist drinking.
According to One Colorado Director Brad Clark, Buck campaign consultant Will Adams told One Colorado representatives that Buck would consider taking a meeting with One Colorado to discuss the matter “if [Buck] won the election.”
“We reminded [Buck’s campaign people] of the open invitation to have coffee with Deborah Stone, a mother of a gay son who suffered harassment as a teenager at school,” Clark told the Colorado Independent.
“Buck’s reaction to this issue and our calls for him to retract his damaging statements has been to say that Coloradans don’t care about these social issues,” said Clark. “But we do care. Moms of gay teens care. Members of the mental health community care. They see Buck as being stuck in a mindset that is decades old and that has been proven wrong.”
Clark said that the 1,500 signatures attached to the call to retract the statements represents the opinions of tens of thousands of Coloradans.
“For each person who took the time to sign, each of those people have friends and relatives who feel the same exact way and who believe these issues affect their lives.”
Buck has been retreating from controversial statements on social issues for weeks. As blogger Jason Salzman has pointed out, Buck fielded a question about abortion in a similar fashion as it was posed by CBS4’s Gloria Neal in a debate Saturday,
Buck has said he opposes abortion in all cases, including in instances of rape and incest.
“Will you really make a raped woman carry a child to full term?” Neil asked.
“We need to stay focused on the issues that voters in this state care about, and those are spending and jobs,” Buck said.
Neal didn’t let the conversation stop there.
“Social issues are important to the voters in this state. I am one of them. So I need you to answer that question, because in addition to votes and jobs and all of that, abortion is very important, and when you start talking about rape and incest, that is important to the voters. So, please, answer that question.”
“I am pro-life, and I don’t believe in the exceptions of rape and incest,” Buck said.
Calls to Will Adams with the Buck campaign were not immediately returned.
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