David Barton, a minister who's taught
at Beck University, conservative celebrity Glenn Beck's online
university, wants federal agencies to regulate being gay.
Barton is the founder of WallBuilders,
a Christian-based organization that describes itself as “dedicated
to presenting America's forgotten history and heroes, with an
emphasis on the moral, religious and constitutional foundations on
which America was built.” He's also the former co-chair of the
Texas Republican Party.
Speaking
Tuesday on his radio show, Barton rhetorically asked: “Why
don't we regulate homosexuality?”
Barton suggested being gay should be
regulated like other unhealthy vices such as alcohol or cigarettes.
“We have a Department of Health and
Human Services; we have health care bills; we have health insurance
and we're trying to stop all unhealthy things so we're going after
transfats and we're going after transparency in labeling to make sure
we get all the healthy stuff in there.”
“So if I got to the Centers for
Disease Control and I'm concerned about health, I find some
interesting stats there and this should tell me something about
health.”
“Homosexual/bi-sexual individuals are
seven times more likely to contemplate or commit suicide. Oooh, that
doesn't sound very healthy.”
Barton added that gay people are more
likely to contract HIV, Hepatitis B and C, and Syphilis.
“I mean, you go through all this
stuff, sounds to me like that's not very healthy,” he said, then
asked, “Why don't we regulate homosexuality?”
“And now here the CDC is saying
'here's a really unhealthy lifestyle' and we're saying 'great, let's
promote it in schools and let's protect it in law.”
Barton is a regular guest on Fox News'
Glenn Beck and Huckabee, which is hosted by former
Arkansas Governor and 2012 presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee.