Scott Walker: ‘I Don’t Know’ If Being Gay Is A Choice (But I Want Gay Marriage Banned)
Scott Walker is yet again refusing to give a straight answer to a basic question that, despite his claim that his opinion doesn’t matter, it actually does when people are deciding if they want to vote for him for president.
Scott Walker repeatedly refuses to give straight answers on gay issues. That might sound funny but it’s really not.
Today, “State of the Union” ran an interview with Gov. Walker conducted by CNN’s Dana Bash.
Let’s just give you the transcript so there’s no question about his comments:
BASH: Do you think that being gay is a choice? Â
WALKER: Oh, I mean I think — that’s not even an issue for me to be involved in. The bottom line is, I’m going to stand up and work hard for every American regardless of who they are, no matter where they come from, no matter what their background. I’m going to fight for people and no matter whether they vote for me or not.
BASH: On behalf of people is to do that properly you have to understand or at least have an opinion on who they are and where they’re coming from. Â
WALKER: But again, I think — no I don’t have an opinion on every single issue out there. I mean to me that’s — I don’t know. I don’t know the answer to that question.
So I’m just saying, I don’t know what the answer to that is. And again I’m going to spend my time focused on things that I do know and what I can work on.
That last part should be an automatic disqualification for being president: “I’m going to spend my time focused on things that I do know and what I can work on.” Walker’s scope of knowledge is rather limited to begin with, so saying he’s just not going to deal with issues he’s unfamiliar with should be a deal breaker for every American.
But that first part, the “I don’t know” part?
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Scott Walker has a cousin who’s a lesbian. It should be pretty easy for him to find out the answer to the question. Has he never asked? His sons and his wife have an opinion, so why doesn’t he? And, it’s 2015. The science is clear, every major medical organization has a clearly stated position on the subject. If Scott Walker doesn’t know, he’s either lying or is one of the least-curious people in American politics.
Walker, as we know, is a two-term Republican governor of Wisconsin. He spent a good part of last year teasing voters about his position on same-sex marriage and gay people in general. In June, one year before the Supreme Court would rule that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry, Walker, running for re-election, told Wisconsin refused to give voters a straight answer, instead, saying that his opinion on the issue “really doesn’t matter.”
But it did matter to him just three months later when he gave one of Wisconsin’s most anti-gay organizations, which he was asking for asking an endorsement, a straight answer. Walker told them in no uncertain therms that he supports only one-man, one woman marriage. There, they got a straight answer.
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Recently, when every likely and current Republican presidential candidate was being asked if they would attend a same-sex wedding, Walker again tried to play coy, telling reporters he would – and had – attended a same-sex reception, but not a same-sex wedding. Again, successfully refusing to offer a straight answer to a basic question.Â
Last week, Walker actually gave a straight answer to a reporter who asked him for his opinion on the news the Boy Scouts of America were preparing to drop their decades-old ban on gay adult Scout leaders. Walker said he preferred the ban because it “protected” boy scouts from gay men.Â
In other words, Walker suggested gays are pedophiles, garnering great outrage.
When the heat got too hot, Walker tried to twist the meaning of his original response, claiming he meant the ban protected boy scouts from having to be involved in the media attention of the issue. If the ban stays in place, there’s no media attention, Walker offered, trying to convince America that was his intention.
CNN’s Dana Bash didn’t bring it up, but Walker as recently as three weeks before the Supreme Court handed down its marriage ruling, called for a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.
Scott Walker clearly has an issue with gay people, and Scott Walker clearly is remarkably incurious. Both of those should be non-starters for anyone running for president.
Being gay isn’t a choice, being a bigoted homophobe is. And @ScottWalker made that choice in order to court his fellow homophobes
— Joe Sudbay (@JoeSudbay) July 19, 2015
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Image: Screenshot via CNN
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