By JEFFREY McMURRAY Associated Press Writer
from Breitbart.com

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) - President Bush’s nominee for surgeon general, Kentucky cardiologist Dr. James Holsinger, has come under fire from gay rights groups for voting to expel a lesbian pastor from the United Methodist Church and writing in 1991 that gay sex is unnatural and unhealthy.

Also, Holsinger helped found a Methodist congregation that, according to gay rights activists, believes homosexuality is a matter of choice and can be “cured.”

“He has a pretty clear bias against gays and lesbians,” said Christina Gilgor, director of the Kentucky Fairness Alliance, a gay rights group. “This ideology flies in the face of current scientific medical studies. That makes me uneasy that he rejects science and promotes ideology.”

Holsinger, 68, has declined all interview requests.

Blair Jones, a White House spokesman, said in a telephone interview Wednesday night that Holsinger had spent his career in public service and taking care of others.

“On numerous occasions, Dr. Holsinger has taken up the banner for underrepresented populations, and he will continue to be a strong advocate for these groups and all Americans,” Jones said.

Holsinger served as Kentucky’s health secretary and chancellor of the University of Kentucky’s medical center. He taught at several medical schools and spent more than three decades in the Army Reserve, retiring in 1993 as a major general.

His supporters, including fellow doctors, faculty members and state officials, said he would never let his theological views affect his medical ones.

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