Intolerance makes bad medicine
THE SURGEON general of the United States is sometimes described as the family physician to the nation. Families these days come in different shapes and forms, and it is a mistake for President Bush to nominate as surgeon general a doctor who, as a lay leader of his church, has repeatedly demonstrated intolerance toward gays and lesbians.
Dr. James W. Holsinger Jr. is a cardiologist who has also served as administrator of the Kentucky state health system and the University of Kentucky's medical system. In 1992, he was named undersecretary for health in the US Department of Veterans Affairs. But it is not his professional record that has raised the concern of several senators -- including Edward M. Kennedy, chairman of the Senate health committee that will hold confirmation hearings on Holsinger in the coming weeks.
In 2005, as a leader of the judicial council of the United Methodist Church, Holsinger acted to reinstate a Methodist minister who had been suspended for refusing to allow a gay man to be a member of his congregation. In 2004, he wrote in a council opinion that the church should have acted to remove a lesbian minister. In 1991, he wrote a paper for a church committee that described male homosexuality as unnatural.
Kennedy has stopped short of saying that these actions disqualify Holsinger as surgeon general. But he issued a statement earlier this month saying, "I am disappointed that the administration looked past the many talented physicians who have a record of bringing people together and instead chose an individual whose record appears to guarantee a polarizing and divisive nomination process."
In the past, surgeons general have led efforts to reduce smoking, address HIV-AIDS, and deal with racial disparities in medicine. They can be boat-rockers. Dr. Joycelyn Elders was fired by President Clinton in 1994 when she suggested at an AIDS forum that children "perhaps should be taught to masturbate."
But no one should go into the job with a record of discriminating against people because of their sexual orientation. A spokeswoman for the US Department of Health and Human Services, Christina Pearson, said Holsinger had once supported the nomination of a gay woman to a Kentucky state health panel. Pearson said he is "focused on addressing the health of all in need, including gay and lesbian populations." It would be easier to take her assurance at face value if Holsinger would renounce his previous views on homosexuality, but he has not done so.
As Kennedy noted, there is no shortage of competent physicians who see their fellow citizens as equals. Bush should withdraw a nominee who cannot help but make a substantial portion of the population feel not like family but like unwanted outsiders. 