A day after New York GOP gubernatorial hopeful told Carl Paladino an Orthodox crowd he doesn’t want children “brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality” is acceptable, he began trying to smooth things over.
In separate appearances Oct. 11, Paladino said he stands up for the rights of everyone, including gays, but thinks young children shouldn’t be exposed to homosexuality, especially at gay pride parades.
“They wear these little Speedos and they grind against each other and it’s just a terrible thing,” Paladino said on NBC’s “Today” show. “Why would you bring your children to that?”
The candidate, a Republican who has received tea party support, said he opposes same-sex marriage but would actively recruit gays to his administration. Mentioning his gay nephew, Paladino said the discrimination he and others face is a “very ugly experience.”
At an Oct. 11 Columbus Day Parade in Manhattan, his Democratic opponent, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, said the comments were “reckless and divisive” in light of recent violence against gays.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, asked to comment on Paladino’s earlier remarks, replied, “It’s not what America stands for, and it’s not what New York stands for, and I won’t dignify it with anything else.”
Paladino’s remarks Oct. 10 came at a summit of Orthodox leaders in a synagogue in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg section as he tried to strike a contrast between himself and Cuomo. Paladino said he chose not to march in this summer’s gay pride parade but that his opponent did.
“That’s not how God created us,” Paladino said, “and that’s not the example that we should be showing our children.”
Knowing that he was in front of an audience that would be largely receptive to his comments, he also said children who later in life choose to marry people of the opposite sex and raise families would be “much better off and much more successful.”
On ABC’s “Good Morning America,” he elaborated, saying, “I only have one problem with homosexuality, and that’s their desire to be married, and beyond that I don’t have a problem whatsoever.”