Bob Vander Plaats, the president of the
social conservative group The Family Leader, has endorsed the idea
that being gay is as harmful to society as secondhand smoke.
After a failed attempt last year to win
the GOP nomination for Iowa governor with a campaign focused on
repealing the Iowa Supreme Court's unanimous 2009 ruling that brought
gay marriage to the Midwest, Vander Plaats continued to campaign for the
institution's demise.
He's backed campaigns to oust three of
the seven justices that voted in favor of gay marriage, pressured
lawmakers to approve a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage,
and called for the impeachment of the remaining four justices on the
Supreme Court.
At a February seminar featuring former
Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, Vander
Plaats distanced himself from claims made by the Iowa Family Policy
Center, a group that has been absorbed by The Family Leader.
At the seminar series The
Second-Hand Effects of Same-Sex Marriage, the Iowa Family Policy
Center argues that homosexuality is as dangerous to society as
secondhand smoke.
“The Family Leader has not been a
part of that [seminar series],” Vander Plaats told a reporter in
February.
“Here's what we are about: We're
about anything that works to strengthen families. We want to speak
the truth, but we want to do it in love. We aren't about being
extremist, or about being fearful, or about being hateful. We are
just about being truth and love,” he added.
Vander Plaats, however, did not
repudiate the group's claim. And in a
new interview with the progressive website ThinkProgress.com he
endorsed the idea, saying that gay sex is “a public health
risk.”
“When you take a look at it, this
isn’t the Family Leader, but say the New York Health Department.
They’ve put out an ad basically highlighting all the dangers of the
homosexual lifestyle, that you’re this many times more to get this
particular disease or this many times more to get this other type of
disease. Now, they conclude with 'practice safe sex.' But they’re
almost taking our talking points. Because anybody, the Journal of
Medicine will back us up on this, that this is a risky lifestyle,
health risk lifestyle. If we’re teaching the kids, 'don’t smoke,
because that’s a risky health style,' the same can be true of the
homosexual lifestyle. That’s why I think we need to speak the truth
once in a while.” (The video is embedded in the right panel of this
page.)