Rick Perry: ‘We’ll Leave To Psychologists’ If Gays Are Really Like Alcoholics

Rick Perry, the Texas governor and prospective 2016 Republican presidential candidate, faced some heat Monday from an unlikely source over his comments last week comparing gay people to alcoholics. Perry made the comparison at a Commonwealth Club appearance in San Francisco, California, last Thursday.

In those comments, Perry asserted that, both excessive alcohol consumption and homosexual behavior can be controlled by an individual even if he or she has a genetic predisposition toward those behaviors. The remarks came in response to a question about the most recent Texas Republican party platform, which endorses so-called “reparative” or “conversion” therapy, which supposedly aims to turn gay people into heterosexuals.

But on Monday Perry appeared on the CNBC program Squawk Box, where he was confronted about the curious analogy, and about the party platform plank, by Joe Kernen, a former stockbroker who has been a financial news TV personality first for the former Financial News Network, then for CNBC, when the NBC-owned cable network bought out FNN.

While Kernen generally grills guests about their stands on financial issues, he hit Perry hard on his comparison of gays to alcoholics.

“I have a really high bar for what I would take offense to, but that would exceed the bar for me on being an offensive comment,” Kernan told the Texas governor, who is not seeking reelection this year. “I don’t think gay marriage leads to cirrhosis of the liver or domestic violence or DWIs. I don’t understand how that’s similar.”

“I understand,” Perry replied. “People have different opinions about that.”

Perry then attempted to reframe the issue of gay rights as one of state’s rights, but Kernan would not let him off the hook, pressing Perry on the topic of “reparative” therapy. Even though his own state party endorses the discredited, practice designed to dissuade gay people from engaging in homosexual behavior, Perry said that he “didn’t know” if the therapy worked or not.

“I get that,” said Kernan. “But in terms of changing the behavior of someone, I don’t think — you wouldn’t think that someone who’s heterosexual, that you couldn’t change them into a homosexual or someone who is homosexual, you don’t think that there should be therapy to try to change them into a heterosexual?”

Perry again attempted a non-committal answer.

“I don’t know,” Rick Perry said. “The fact is, we’ll leave that to the psychologists and the doctors.”

The American Psychological Association officially condemns conversion therapy as unethical, and stopped classifying homosexuality as a disease 40 years ago. However, it has classified alcoholism as a disease for 60 years.

Watch the entire confrontation over the gays/alcoholism comparison between Rick Perry and Joe Kernan, below.