"Which includes me, by the way," he adds. "Unfortunately, I've had my own sins that I've had to confess, and deal with, and try to overcome."

Catholic law states:

"Homosexual acts are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved."

-- Catechism of the Catholic Church, para. 2357

Meet the Press' Tim Russert had asked Giuliani about the controversy surrounding a 1992 statement made by competitor and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee that AIDS should be treated as a public health issue, rather than a civil rights issue, warranting the quarantine of those infected.

Huckabee has defended this statement.

"We're all imperfect human beings," adds Giuliani, "struggling to try to be better."

Gay activist and Truth Wins Out Executive Director Wayne Besen calls on Giuliani to elaborate on his statements. Asks Besen, "Have Giuliani's long held convictions on gay relationships changed in a New York minute to win the GOP nomination?"

"If they have," continues Besen, "then he lacks the character to be president. Giuliani's answer on Meet the Press seemed to parrot the religious right's cruel and empty 'love the sinner, hate the sin' rhetoric. We call on Giuliani to clarify what 'acts' he thinks are sinful and we hope he continues to respect all relationships."

A clip of the interview, as broadcast on NBC's Meet the Press on December 9, 2007, is available for viewing below, along with transcript. The entire transcript is available at MSNBC.

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TRANSCRIPT:

MR. RUSSERT: And we’re back. Our remaining minutes with Rudy Giuliani.

Mike Huckabee, leading the field in Iowa, told the Associated Press back in the ‘90s that AIDS patients should be quarantined and that “homosexuality was aberrant, unnatural and a sinful lifestyle.” What’s your reaction?

MR. GIULIANI: My reaction is that I haven’t seen—on the second of that, I haven’t seen Mike’s comment. The first one I think he says that he didn’t have the information, that he’s changed his mind about it, it’s not his current position. Look, I got enough of my own statements and issues, as we’ve seen, that I have to deal with. I think Mike has to...

MR. RUSSERT: But you don’t believe homosexuality is aberrant...

MR. GIULIANI: Oh, no, no, no.

MR. RUSSERT: ...unnatural or sinful.

MR. GIULIANI: My, my, my—no, I don’t believe it’s sinful. My, my moral views on this come from the, you know, from the Catholic Church, and I believe that homosexuality, heterosexuality as a, as a way that somebody leads their life is not—isn’t sinful. It’s the acts, it’s the various acts that people perform that are sinful, not the—not the orientation that they have.

MR. RUSSERT: The Congress is discussing and...

MR. GIULIANI: Which includes me, by the way. I mean, you know, unfortunately, I’ve had my own sins that I’ve had to confess and had to deal with and try to overcome and so I’m very, very empathetic with people, and that we’re all, we’re all imperfect human beings struggling to, to try to be better.

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