On ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ Perry tells bisexual teen: ‘Homosexuality is a sin’

DECORAH, Iowa — At a campaign stop in Iowa on Sunday, Texas Governor and GOP presidential hopeful Rick Perry found himself explaining to a 14-year-old girl — who later told reporters she was bisexual — why he opposed gays serving openly in the military.

“I just want to know why you’re so opposed to gays serving openly in the military, why you want to deny them that freedom when they’re fighting and dying for your right to run for president,” Rebecka Green, a high school student from Decorah, asked Perry.

“Here’s my issue. This is about my faith, and I happen to think, you know, there are a whole hosts of sins,” Perry responded. “Homosexuality being one of them, and I’m a sinner and so I’m not going to be the first one to throw a stone.”

After her confrontation with Perry, Green said she disagreed with the Texas governor’s position on the issue.

“I’m openly bisexual and I don’t want to be told that if I wanted to serve in the military that I couldn’t, and I just think that policy is completely ridiculous that he thinks that. I just don’t like it,” Green said. “Him or nobody should be able to tell somebody who they can or can’t love.”

Perry was unaware that she was bisexual when she approached him with the question.

The girl’s father, Todd Green, a professor at Luther College, said he and his daughter came to the event after seeing Perry’s campaign ad airing in Iowa that questions why gays can serve openly in the military while, “our kids can’t openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school.”