Giuliani Parses Shades of 'Gay'

Rudy Giuliani seems poised to hate the "sin" of homosexuality... as long as it's understood that the "sin" lies with the sex and not the attraction.

In the wake of media attention on Republican presidential contender Mike Huckabee's 1992 declaration that people with HIV / AIDS should be kept contained and separated from the general population, Tim Russert asked Giuliani, during the former NYC mayor's appearance in Meet the Press, whether he agreed with Huckabee's declaration that being gay is an "aberrant, unnatural, and sinful lifestyle."

Giuliani parsed his reply carefully, reports an article in the New York Observer published today (www.observer.com/2007/gays-rudy-goes-both-ways): he said that being gay is not sinful, but that what gays, or straights, do with one another sexually might well be.

The article pointed out that Giuliani, during his time as New York City mayor, sought to see the partners of the city's gay and lesbian workers receive family benefits; moreover, Giuliani had, at age 56, a gay couple as a pair of roommates.

Giuliani told Russert, "My moral views on this come from the Catholic Church."

Continued Giuliani, "I believe that homosexuality, heterosexuality, as a way of somebody leads their life isn't sinful. It's the acts--it's the various acts that people perform that are sinful, not the orientation that they have."

The Catholic Church's position is that gays and lesbians are "called" by God to lead lives of celibacy.

The Church also opposed any rights for gay families or legislation that would ensure that openly gay people are treated equitably under the law, the Observer article noted.

Remarking that Giuliani's remarks seem to contradict the policies he pursued as mayor, the article suggested that the contender for the nomination to next year's presidential election is walking fine line calculated to appeal to religious conservatives, who have yet to rally around any one candidate.

Huckabee stated Sunday, Dec. 9, that he stood by his belief in 1992 that people with HIV / AIDS should have been quarantined, a move expected to appeal to those undecided religious conservatives; Mitt Romney last week made a speech calculated to emphasize the similarities between Mormonism and mainstream Christianity, while leaving out the troublesome aspects of his faith that make many old-school Christian conservatives nervous.

As other Republican candidates continue to buff and polish their images in a style plainly meant to court the religious right, and given his several marriages and media attention to Bernie Kerek, a former NYC police commissioner during Giuliani's time as mayor who was arraigned on charges of corruption last month, as well as current media scrutiny of Giuliani's business ties to the emirate Quatar, which American intelligence indicates lend assistance to Al Qaeda in plotting the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Giuliani's past as a pro-gay, pro-abortion voice might prove hard to live down, The Observer article suggested.