--- title: Texas Governor Rick Perry Compares Homosexuality to Alcoholism description: Texas Gov. Rick Perry prompted an awkward moment at a talk in San Francisco on Wednesday when he compared homosexuality to alcoholism. canonical: https://time.com/2863576/rick-perry-homosexuality-alcoholism/ author: Noah Rayman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-12T12:51:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T08:22:38.525Z article:section: Politics og:title: Texas Governor Rick Perry Compares Homosexuality to Alcoholism og:description: Texas Gov. Rick Perry prompted an awkward moment at a talk in San Francisco on Wednesday when he compared homosexuality to alcoholism. og:url: https://time.com/2863576/rick-perry-homosexuality-alcoholism/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Texas Governor Rick Perry Compares Homosexuality to Alcoholism twitter:description: Texas Gov. Rick Perry prompted an awkward moment at a talk in San Francisco on Wednesday when he compared homosexuality to alcoholism. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # 'Murmur of Disbelief' As Rick Perry Compared Homosexuality to Alcoholism > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Noah Rayman](https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/)  ## Noah Rayman Jun 12, 2014 12:51 PM UTC  by [Noah Rayman](https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/)  ## Noah Rayman Jun 12, 2014 12:51 PM UTC Texas Gov. Rick Perry prompted an awkward moment at a talk in San Francisco on Wednesday when he [compared homosexuality to alcoholism](http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/In-S-F-Rick-Perry-compares-homosexuality-to-5546544.php). The San Francisco _Chronicle_ reports there was a “murmur of disbelief” among the audience members after Perry responded to a question about whether he believes homosexuality is a disorder: --- > “” --- The question came days after the Republican Party of Texas approved language supporting access to “reparative therapy” for gays and lesbians. At the talk on Wednesday, Perry said he did not know if such therapy works, the _Chronicle_ reports. \[[_SF Chronicle_](http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/In-S-F-Rick-Perry-compares-homosexuality-to-5546544.php)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2863576/rick-perry-homosexuality-alcoholism/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2863576/rick-perry-homosexuality-alcoholism/"},"headline":"'Murmur of Disbelief' As Rick Perry Compared Homosexuality to Alcoholism","datePublished":"2014-06-12T12:51:31.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T08:22:38.525Z","description":"The question came days after the Republican Convention in Texas approved language supporting access to “reparative therapy” for gays and lesbians.","url":"https://time.com/2863576/rick-perry-homosexuality-alcoholism/","keywords":["republicans","Texas","California","Gay Rights","Homosexuality","rick perry"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Noah Rayman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/republicans/","name":"republicans"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2863576/rick-perry-homosexuality-alcoholism/","name":"'Murmur of Disbelief' As Rick Perry Compared Homosexuality to Alcoholism"}}]}] ```