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.”