Paladino Attacks Gays in Brooklyn Speech

Kathy Willens/Associated Press

Supporters greeted Republican gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino during a campaign stop at Karlsburg Rabbinical College in Brooklyn on Sunday.

By ELIZABETH A. HARRIS

Published: October 10, 2010

By ELIZABETH A. HARRIS
Republican candidate for governor Carl P. Paladino told a gathering in Williamsburg Sunday that children should not be “brainwashed” into thinking that homosexuality is acceptable, and criticized his opponent, Democrat Andrew M. Cuomo, for marching in a gay pride parade earlier this year.
Addressing Orthodox Jewish leaders, in Williamsburg, Mr. Paladino described his opposition to same-sex marriage.
“That’s not how God created us,” he said, reading from a prepared address. "I just think my children and your children would be much better off and much more successful getting married and raising a family, and I don’t want them brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality is an equally valid and successful option — it isn’t."
And then, to applause from the group at Congregation Shaarei Chaim, he said: “I didn’t march in the gay parade this year -the gay pride parade this year. My opponent did and that’s not the example we should be showing our children,”
About an hour after Mr. Paladino’s remarks, Mr. Cuomo’s campaign released a statement condemning them..
“Mr. Paladino’s statement displays a stunning homophobia and a glaring disregard for basic equality,” it said. “These comments along with other views he has espoused make it clear that he is way out of the mainstream and is unfit to represent New York.”
Mr. Paladino declined a request to be interviewed after his appearance, but his campaign manager, Michael R. Caputo, denied that the candidate is anti-gay, and noted that he employs an openly gay man on his campaign staff.
“Carl Paladino is simply expressing the views that he holds in his heart as a Catholic,” Mr. Caputo said in a telephone interview. “Carl Paladino is not homophobic, and neither is the Catholic Church.”
Indeed, during his appearance with the Jewish group, with reporters in attendance, Mr. Paladino said: “Don’t misquote me as wanting to hurt homosexual people in any way. That would be a dastardly lie.”
A same-sex marriage bill was defeated last year by New York lawmakers. Mr. Paladino has said that, unlike Mr. Cuomo, he would veto such a bill if he were governor. But Mr. Caputo said if the same measure passed in a state-wide referendum, Mr. Paladino would uphold the law.
Brain Ellner, head of the marriage initiative for the gay advocacy group, Human Rights Campaign, said that the Republican’s remarks were insensitive given recent events.
Police on Friday announced that nine men had lured and tortured three men into an unoccupied apartment in the Bronx, because they thought they were gay. Last month, a student at Rutgers University jumped off the George Washington Bridge after two classmates broadcast his sexual encounter with a man over the internet.
"Paladino’s words speak for themselves,” Mr. Ellner said. “His comments are stunningly out of touch with values in this state, and worrisomely tone deaf given events of recent days."
Mr. Paladino has not spoken about the Bronx attacks, which have been described as “pure evil” by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.
“At the end of the day, crime is committed every single day in this state,” Mr. Caputo, said in an interview, adding that “Carl doesn’t discern between different demographics.”
Mr. Caputo then went on the attack, saying that Mr. Cuomo was, the one who should be called homophobic. Mr. Caputo said that as attorney general, Mr. Cuomo did not aggressively push for passage of the same-sex marriage bill and that, in his father’s mayoral campaign in 1977, Mr. Cuomo was responsible for signs that read “Vote for Cuomo, Not the Homo.” Mr. Cuomo, who was 19 at the time of the campaign, and denied any involvement in the signs but since apologized for the tone of the campaign. denies