Tony Cook, and Chelsea Schneider

IndyStar

An Indiana lawmaker drew analogies to Jared Fogle, fat white people and psychopathic killers in an effort to describe his belief that being gay is a behavior.

Rep. Woody Burton, R-Whiteland, said during a town hall meeting in his hometown on Saturday that homosexuality is a behavior. He then made a number of comparisons.

“You can’t control it sometimes. I understand that,” he said. “If someone’s a psychopathic killer, it’s a behavior thing. They can’t help it. OK? Somebody’s a homosexual, maybe it’s a genetic thing. Maybe it’s not. They can’t help it. But it’s still a behavioral thing.”

Burton then invoked Jared Fogle, the former Subway sandwich pitchman who received a prison sentence of nearly 16 years in November on charges of possessing child pornography and traveling across state lines to have commercial sex with a minor.

“This thing with Subway and Jared is a classic example of what’s the next step,” he said. “And you say, oh that will never happen. I’ve got articles on my computer at home from the English newspapers saying that those people can’t help it and they ought to be protected in England.”

He later questioned why gay and transgender Hoosiers should be protected from discrimination while overweight people are not.

“If I pass a law that says transgenders and homosexuals are covered under the civil rights laws, then does it say anywhere that fat white people are covered?” he said. “What if I’m overweight? I don’t mean that to be facetious. I’ve been fat all my life and people used to make fun of me when I was a kid. I could probably do something about it, okay? Maybe I can’t. Maybe it’s just my habits. Maybe I got some physical thing. But when I was a kid there were people who discriminated against me because I was fat.”

His comments came in response to questions from town hall attendees about expanding Indiana’s civil rights laws to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. A Senate committee is scheduled to take up such legislation Wednesday at 4 p.m.

Live updates: How the LGBT rights debate played out

One of the questioners identified herself as a member of Indiana Competes, a group of more than 400 businesses pushing for LGBT rights at the Statehouse. The organization provided the IndyStar with a 15-minute audio clip from the town hall meeting.

Those fighting at the Statehouse to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity condemned Burton's comments.

Peter Hanscom, initiative director for Indiana Competes, said Burton’s comments show that many lawmakers are misinformed about LGBT issues.

“Rep. Burton's comments display a lack of overall education and understanding of the legal discrimination that LGBT Hoosiers face daily,” he said. “False comparisons that suggest sexual orientation and gender identity are ‘behaviors’ identical to obesity or child molestation are categorically false and have no place in this conversation.”

Chris Paulsen, campaign manager for LGBT rights group Freedom Indiana, called Burton's statements offensive and disturbing.

"Sexual orientation and gender identity are not choices, and it is highly inappropriate to conflate them with issues such as obesity or crimes such as pedophilia," she said. "On a personal note, I'm disgusted that an elected official in our state would issue what I consider a personal attack on me and my family. My wife and I live here. We love this state. We pay taxes, and we support our local economy. Those are all choices, and we could choose to live elsewhere. It's beyond me why a state lawmaker would say such offensive and insulting things in a public forum about his fellow Hoosiers."

Burton said Tuesday that about 20 people attended the event. He said he wasn’t trying to compare gay people to killers or child molesters.

“When I talk about behavioral things, I want to stress that I’m not comparing gays to Jared or people that are psychotic,” he said. I was trying to explain behavior is a thing that people have and sometimes they can control it and sometimes they can’t. When we start talking about civil rights based on behavior, where do we draw the line?”

The American Psychological Association says decades of research has proven that homosexuality is a "normal form of human experience."

“Research has found no inherent association between any of these sexual orientations and psychopathology,” the organization’s pamphlet on sexual orientation says. “Despite the persistence of stereotypes that portray lesbian, gay and bisexual people as disturbed, several decades of research and clinical experience have led all mainstream medical and mental health organizations in this country to conclude that these orientations represent normal forms of human experience.”

There is no consensus among scientists about what causes someone to have a particular sexual orientation, the association says.

“Many think that nature and nurture both play complex roles,” the organization’s pamphlet says. “Most people experience little or no sense of choice about their sexual orientation.”

Call IndyStar reporter Tony Cook at (317) 444-6081. Follow him on Twitter: @indystartony.