Young Conservatives of California
Chairman Ryan Sorba suggested over the weekend that “gay identity
does not exist.”
Sorba was among the panelists speaking
at this weekend's The Awakening conference at Liberty University in
Lynchburg, Virginia.
Matt Barber, a dean at the school,
served as the panel's moderator. Also on the panel was Greg Quinlan,
president of Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX), a
group that believes gay people can – and should – alter their
sexual orientation.
“If you had all the facts, you
wouldn't choose to be gay,” Quinlan, a 52-year-old divorcee, said.
Sorba suggested that Christian
conservatives who oppose gay rights should take control of the debate
by preventing gay people from calling themselves gay.
“'Gay' is a left-wing socio-political
construct designed to create grounds for fundamental rights [based
on] whimsical capricious desires,” Sorba
said, the American
Independent
reported. “Gay identity does not exist.”
“He who defines the terms controls
the debate and by extension public opinion,” he said. “What we
need to do is state that look this is either same-sex attraction or
maybe they're engaging in same-sex intercourse or sodomy or what
whatever word you're comfortable using. And that's it.” (The
video is embedded in the right panel of this page.)
Later, “anti-Christian” was
suggested as a good term to describe gay men and lesbians.
At last year's conservative meet up
CPAC, Sorba was booed off the floor for his anti-gay remarks.
“Guess what?” Sorba rhetorically
asked the crowd. “Civil rights are grounded in natural rights.
Natural rights are grounded in human nature. Human nature is a
rational substance and relationship. The intelligible end of the
reproductive act is reproduction. You understand that.”
The crowd booed and hissed. A young
man yelled, “Go sit down,” and Sorba replied, “No, you sit
down.”