Santorum vs. Maddow

"Were they born this way?

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum and MSNBC host Rachel Maddow went toe to toe over gay rights on her show Wednesday night.

the liberal news anchor asked Santorum point-blank if he thinks being gay is a choice.

“You know, I’ve sort of never answered that question because I don’t really know the answer to that

question, but I suspect that there’s all sorts of reasons that people end up the way they are. And I’ll sort of leave it at that,” Santorum replied.  

Maddow insisted that Santorum’s opinion on whether homosexuality is an unchangeable characteristic of a person’s identity matters greatly to the issue at hand: if Congress should challenge the SCOTUS decision.

There are people who are alive today who identified themselves as gay and lesbian and who no longer are,” he said. “That’s true. I do know I’ve met people in that case, so I guess maybe in that case, maybe they did [choose to be gay.]”

But Maddow, who was the first openly gay host of a prime-time news show, suggested that this “slippery slope” concern merely sidestepped her initial question.

“All I’m saying is that I do know people who have lived a gay lifestyle and no longer live it,” yahoo