WASHINGTON -- After promoting his fondness for Lady Gaga songs, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty was asked over the weekend whether he thinks gays were "Born This Way," the title of Gaga's latest hit. Pawlenty's response? "The science ... is in dispute."
On that point, scientists say Pawlenty is on partially solid ground. Although few scientists believe that homosexuality is a lifestyle choice -- as many social conservatives believe -- there's also no consensus as to how much sexual orientation is determined by genetic, hormonal or environmental factors.
More importantly for Pawlenty is what the question means to his presidential prospects in Iowa, where social conservatives are still smarting about a 2009 state Supreme Court ruling legalizing gay marriage. The decision made Iowa the third state -- and the first in the nation's heartland -- to do so.
Both Pawlenty and Minnesota Republican Michele Bachmann have been playing to the state's influential Christian conservatives, who succeeded last fall in ousting three of the judges involved in that decision.
"This is still a lingering and potent issue with Iowa caucusgoers," said Tim Albrecht, an aide to Gov. Terry Branstad, who remains neutral in the battle for the GOP nomination in the 2012 presidential race.
On the stump and in television ads, Pawlenty frequently reminds Iowans of his conservative judicial appointments as governor of Minnesota.
'Marriage vow'
Bachmann, meanwhile, signed on last week to a "marriage vow" committing candidates to stand against same-sex marriage, as well as against an "anti-scientific bias which holds, in complete absence of empirical proof, that non-heterosexual inclinations are genetically determined, irresistible and akin to innate traits like race, gender and eye color."
