Washington – President Bush’s nominee for surgeon general insisted Thursday that he harbors no bias against homosexuals in spite of his 1991 writings viewed by some as anti-gay.
Dr. James Holsinger faced tough questioning at his Senate confirmation hearing over his views on homosexuality and how he would react if he were pressured to put politics ahead of science in his role as the nation’s doctor.
“I would resign,” Holsinger said emphatically.
Concerns about his independence were spurred by former Surgeon General Richard Carmona’s testimony two days earlier that the Bush administration muzzled him on issues such as abstinence education and stem-cell research because of politics.
A vote on the nomination of Holsinger wasn’t expected for several weeks.
At Thursday’s hearing, he distanced himself from a paper he wrote 16 years ago that has been attacked by gay-rights organizations and public health experts as inaccurate and inflammatory. The paper cited data showing elevated rates of disease among gay men, but some medical experts say he completely ignored other data that would contradict the paper’s point that homosexuality is an abnormal function.
Holsinger said it was not intended to be a scientific paper and that he relied on the information available to him at the time.
“First of all, the paper does not represent where I am today. It does not represent who I am today,” Holsinger said.
Holsinger told the committee that he fought to ensure that a conference on women’s health include segments on the health needs of lesbians. At the time, he was chancellor of the University of Kentucky Medical Center.
Holsinger said that if he is confirmed, one of his first priorities will be to tackle the issue of childhood obesity.
Before the Senate hearing, gay-rights groups, the American Public Health Association and 35 members of the House lined up in opposition to Holsinger’s nomination. The Kentucky doctor garnered the support of a prominent former surgeon general, Dr. C. Everett Koop, as well as the American College of Physicians.
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., introduced a bill Thursday that would require a surgeon general nominee to be drawn from a list prepared by the Institute of Medicine. The legislation would let the surgeon general submit budget requests publicly and hire his or her own staff.
Holsinger is a professor from the University of Kentucky’s College of Public Health. He worked for 26 years in a variety of positions at the Department of Veterans Affairs, including stints as chief of staff or director at several VA centers.
