Nominee under fire for views on gays - Surgeon general pick accused of bias

Nominee under fire for views on gays - Surgeon general pick accused of bias
By Jeffrey McMurray
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune and The Associated Press
Published June 7, 2007

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- President Bush's nominee for surgeon general, Kentucky cardiologist Dr. James Holsinger, has come under fire from gay-rights groups for, among other things, voting to expel a lesbian pastor from the United Methodist Church and writing in 1991 that gay sex is unnatural and unhealthy.

Also, Holsinger helped found a Methodist congregation that, according to gay-rights activists, believes homosexuality is a matter of choice and can be "cured."

"He has a pretty clear bias against gays and lesbians," said Christina Gilgor, director of the Kentucky Fairness Alliance, a gay-rights group. "This ideology flies in the face of current scientific medical studies. That makes me uneasy that he rejects science and promotes ideology."

Holsinger, 68, has declined all interview requests, and the White House had no immediate comment Wednesday.

Holsinger was Kentucky's health secretary and chancellor of the University of Kentucky's medical center. He taught at several medical schools and spent more than three decades in the Army Reserve, retiring in 1993 as a major general.

His supporters, including fellow doctors, faculty members and state officials, said he would never let his theological views affect his medical ones.

"Jim is able, as most of us are in medicine, to separate feelings that we have from our responsibility in taking care of patients," said Douglas Scutchfield, a professor of public health at the University of Kentucky.

In announcing Holsinger as his choice for America's top doctor on May 24, Bush said the physician would focus on educating the public about childhood obesity.

The term of the previous surgeon general, Dr. Richard Carmona, was allowed to expire last summer.

Scutchfield said Holsinger has advocated expanded stem cell research, in opposition to many conservatives, and also has shown political courage in this tobacco-producing state by supporting higher cigarette taxes to curb teen smoking.

Gov. Ernie Fletcher commended Holsinger for working to fight obesity and other health problems in Kentucky, which ranks near the bottom in many categories. "He helped get the ball rolling and focusing on healthy lifestyles," Fletcher said.

As president of the Methodist Church's national Judicial Council, Holsinger voted last year to support a pastor who blocked a gay man from joining a congregation. In 2004, he voted to expel a lesbian from the clergy. The majority of the panel voted to keep the lesbian associate pastor in place, citing questions about whether she had openly declared her homosexuality, but Holsinger dissented.

Sixteen years ago, he wrote a paper for the church in which he likened the reproductive organs to male and female "pipe fittings" and argued that homosexuality is therefore biologically unnatural.

"When the complementarity of the sexes is breached, injuries and diseases may occur," Holsinger wrote, citing studies showing higher rates of sexually transmitted diseases among gay men and the risk of injury from anal sex.

Gilgor, the gay-rights activist, called the paper "one twisted piece of work."

As for the congregation Holsinger helped establish, Hope Springs Community Church, Rev. David Calhoun told the Lexington Herald-Leader last week that the Lexington church helps some gay members to "walk out of that lifestyle."

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, which is opposing the nomination, calls such a practice "nothing short of torture" for gays.

Phyllis Nash, who worked under Holsinger for nine years as vice chancellor at the medical center, said the views he took in church appear at odds with his professional actions.

She recalled a women's health conference that Holsinger helped organize in 2002 that included a session on lesbian health. Despite complaints from some lawmakers, Holsinger insisted the session go forward, she said.



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A job that attracts controversy

Some former surgeons general whose work inspired complaints and conflict:

Hugh Cumming: Under his leadership, the Public Health Service in the early 1930s began the four-decade-long Tuskegee syphilis experiment, in which nearly 400 black men were not told they had venereal disease and were left untreated so the disease's effects could be studied.

Thomas Parran Jr.: He was a crusader for approaching venereal disease as a medical condition instead of a target for moral reproach. In 1934, before becoming surgeon general, he dropped plans to speak on CBS radio when the network refused to let him say "syphilis control."

Luther Terry: A committee led by Terry issued the 1964 report that unequivocally linked cigarettes to lung cancer. While that conclusion isn't in dispute today, tobacco companies at the time questioned the evidence. Terry's work led to the warning labels on cigarette packs.

C. Everett Koop: His nomination in 1981 met resistance from liberals who feared he would use the job to spread his anti-abortion views. But later he took harder shots from conservatives over his call for sex education to begin at an early age to help prevent the spread of AIDS.

Joycelyn Elders: Chosen by fellow Arkansan Bill Clinton, she found herself labeled by critics as the "condom queen" for advocating safe sex practices. Elders also invited controversy by urging research into whether legalization of drugs would cut crime. She quit after 15 months.

Sources: surgeongeneral.gov and Tribune news services