OK Rep. James Lankford Claims He Was Ambushed On Gay Protections

Oklahoma Rep. James Lankford is claiming he was ambushed by progressive blog ThinkProgress.com over the issue of gay workplace protections.

On Monday, ThinkProgress.com posted a short clip of Lankford saying that the being gay “is a choice issue” under a headline that suggested he believes it should be legal to fire someone for being gay.

When asked if he supports a law that says “you can't fire someone for their sexual orientation – similar to protections for people on race or gender?” Lankford answered: “Well, you're now dealing with behavior and I'm trying to figure out exactly what you're trying to mean by that. Because you're dealing with – race and sexual preferences are two different things. One is a behavior-related and preference-related and one is something inherently – skin color, something obvious, that kind of stuff. You don't walk up to someone on the street and look at them and say, 'Gay or straight?'”

“But you think that even if you can't see they're that way, you don't think someone is born gay necessarily?”

“Do I personally? No, I don't. I think it's a choice issue. Are tendencies and such? Yes, but I think it's a choice issue.”

In a interview with Oklahoma News 6, Lankford said ThinkProgress misrepresented him, accusing the blog of “spinning” his remarks to fit their agenda.

“I didn't say that there should be some sort of preferences or non-preferences under the headline from the liberal blog as I think people should be fired for being gay, which I think is absurd. But they spun it in that direction. The question they asked me was do I think they should have some special protections on that and I said, 'Are you asking about a specific piece of legislation?' And they said, 'No, just in general.'”

“This is what they call an ambush interview. … I didn't even talk about that.”

“I do believe that homosexuality is a choice,” he added. “And they're pretty furious about that. This is part of the whole redefinition of marriage initiative that the president is currently undertaking to redefine what is marriage. … And I just happen to believe that marriage is between a man and woman.”

Lankford added that he believes he was targeted because he's a Christian.

No numbnuts, whats happened here is, you've revealed who you really are..a racist, homophobic bigot and now that your being called out for it and feeling the heat from your *choice* of words and ill informed opinions, your trying to back peddle and paint yourself in a different light, like all your ilk, a victim of the gay agenda (snerk)...good luck with that.