Virginia candidate: Homosexuality is "a choice" that results in AIDS

http://www.advocate.com/new_news.asp?ID=573&sd=09/01/01-09/04/01 

Jay Katzen, a Republican running for lieutenant governor of Virginia, says AIDS is the result of "people choosing to be homosexuals," The Washington Post reports. A recent story about Katzen in Style Weekly, a Richmond, Va.-based magazine, quotes the candidate as saying, "AIDS is the product, sadly, in most cases of a choice that people have made.... We recognize that homosexuality is a choice. It's a lifestyle with public health consequences." Republicans have mounted a fierce advertising campaign attempting to portray Democratic candidates in the state as the "most liberal" candidates in Virginia's history and as champions of gay rights and gay marriage. Radio ads and mailings have attacked several Democrats, including Katzen's opponent, Timothy Kaine, who in May said he supports granting "civil benefits" to same-sex couples. The Republicans are running their attack ads under the banner of "Virginia values, not Vermont values," referring to Vermont's law allowing civil unions for gay couples. Democrats have called the Republican ads misrepresentations of their records. The ads also have been criticized by gay rights groups in the state, including the Log Cabin Republicans of Virginia, a gay GOP group, as being "distorted, divisive, and irrelevant to the election."