Greg Quinlan on Thursday demanded an
apology from New Jersey lawmakers.
Quinlan, the president of Parents and
Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX),
a group that claims homosexuality can and should be altered, became
heated testifying in front of the New Jersey Assembly Committee
considering a bill which would make New Jersey the seventh state to
legalize gay marriage.
“I want to talk first of all about
something I heard from the very beginning by people of this
Legislature that we are bigots as people of faith, because we do not
hold that homosexual marriage should be codified. That somehow we
are bigots and we are ideologues because we are people of faith. I
want to address that hate,” Quinlan testified. “Everyone in this
room who is a person of faith deserves an apology from one of the
sponsors of this bill for calling us bigots.”
Chairman Peter J. Barnes interrupted
Quinlan, reminding him that no one on the panel had used such language.
“To date there is zero evidence that
anyone is born a homosexual, zero,” Quinlan continued. “In fact
it's homosexual researchers and scientists that are proving that
homosexuality is not innate and had no biological ideology.”
“Homosexuality is not immutable. …
There are many ex-gays; Anne Heche, to name one, Sinead O'Connor and
myself. I left the homosexual lifestyle almost 20 years ago. Lived
as a homosexual activist for 10 years of my life.”
Quinlan insisted that “homosexuality
is not a civil right.”
(Related: Girl
calls on New Jersey lawmakers to let her gay dads marry.)