DENVER, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- A newly elected Colorado state senator who frowns on homosexuality as a "chosen behavior" will be serving on a committee with two gay members.
The Denver Post reported Wednesday Colorado Springs Republican Kent Lambert 's religion-based views on homosexuality came to the forefront when he sent a tweet last month commenting on remarks made last year by Democratic gubernatorial candidate John Hickenlooper that there was some "backwards thinking" in Colorado toward gays.
"Hickenlooper actually calls rural Coloradans 'backward-thinking,' unlike the homosexuals in Denver," Lambert tweeted.
He told the Post Hickenlooper compared "people in rural Colorado to terrorists and murderers because of the homosexual up in Wyoming that was assaulted."
Now Lambert will find himself on the Joint Budget Committee with Rep. Mark Ferrandino and Sen. Pat Steadman, two gay Democrats from Denver.
"I don't really care too much what they do," Lambert said of his colleagues. "I think that's a chosen behavior they have that I don't agree with."
Ferrandino took exception to that characterization.
"I think most science has shown conclusively it's not a choice," Ferrandino said. "It's biological. When people further that fake science that it's a choice, it gives other people a right to discriminate."
Steadman said Lambert's comment was a matter of opinion.
"I am who I am," Steadman said. "When did he choose to be straight?"
