Surgeon General Nominee Wants to Cure Gays

LEXINGTON, KY - Gay rights groups are in uproar after President George W. Bush nominated Kentucky cardiologist Dr. James Holsinger to become the next Surgeon General, the top health official in the United States.

Holsinger wrote a paper for the church in 1991 in which he likened the reproductive organs to male and female "pipe fittings" and argued that homosexuality is therefore biologically unnatural, AP reports.

"When the complementarity of the sexes is breached, injuries and diseases may occur," Holsinger wrote.

Holsinger also helped found Hope Springs Community Church, a congregation that believes homosexuality is a matter of choice and can be cured. Rev. David Calhoun told the Lexington Herald-Leader last week that the church helps some gay members to "walk out of that lifestyle."

"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."

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. And in 2004, he voted to expel a lesbian from the clergy even though the majority of the panel voted to keep the lesbian associate pastor in place.