CNN Anchor Ashleigh Banfield Quickly Pressed Into Apology for Saying Gay Is a 'Lifestyle Choice'

June 1st, 2012 2:46 PM

CNN doesn’t understand why the Catholic Church would pick on nuns that take vows to serve it would be expected to toe the church line on certain beliefs. They insist that nuns should be more liberated women than that. Such women's lib does not apply to CNN anchors, who are subjected to mental “crackdowns” of their own from the gay speech police.

On her CNN program Early Start on Thursday, anchor Ashleigh Banfield was in the middle of denouncing an obscure and extremist Kansas pastor who was recorded calling for government execution of gays (citing the gay-activist blog goodasyou.org). But in her pro-gay sermon, she used politically incorrect terminology and was ticketed by the cops at the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation for using the allegedly defamatory words “Homosexuality is a lifestyle choice by people.” Into the punishment room she went, and an on-air confession and expression of remorse would follow:


LGBT community members and allies sent countless tweets to CNN and Banfield. Blogs and news sites including Advocate.com weighed in. GLAAD contacted CNN yesterday and the network quickly announced that Banfield would speak out this morning. Ashleigh also began tweeting about her remarks.

This morning Banfield made it clear that being gay is not a choice, saying:

BANFIELD:  I made some comments yesterday that ended up getting a lot of traction out there, not only on Twitter but elsewhere. And I want to be very, very clear about what my comments were about. I probably misspoke and mangled words, but I want to be very clear.

When I said that incest and pedophilia involve people who don’t have a choice — victims who don’t have a choice — and then said a gay relationship, you do have a choice, they are not crimes. Gay people involved in relationships are not committing any crimes at all. However, those who perpetrate incest and perpetrate pedophilia are committing crimes. I don’t know that my comments were taken in that light and I certainly hope they were, but in no way did I ever want to suggest that being gay is a choice. It is not. And I probably used the word “lifestyle choice” — not what I meant to say at all. Being gay is not a choice; being in a voluntary gay relationship is a choice. It is not a crime.

So I hope that at least clears up any of the comments I made after that story of the pastor. And in no way do I agree with or stand by any of the comments that that pastor made either.

Banfield stepped into the Cynthia Nixon hole. One can never suggest that anyone chooses homosexuality and you must never call it a "lifestyle." That's one of those gay profanities. Whatever you do, never mention the indecisive Anne Heche types who can't seem to stick with one choice.