Broward Republican congressional candidate: 'You cannot be born gay. That's impossible'

Anthony Man, South Florida Sun Sentinel on Jul 8, 2026

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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Rod Joseph, a Republican congressional candidate in a Broward district that’s home to communities with large numbers of LGBTQ residents, believes that everyone is “born straight” and some people become LGBTQ by choice.

“You cannot be born gay. That’s impossible biologically,” he said.

Joseph said sexuality is a preference, not an inherent orientation. “Sexual preference from the Roman Empire to date, it’s always a preference.”

Joseph, in an interview Tuesday, also said he is concerned that people are somehow indoctrinated or influenced to become LGBTQ. “Most of the people, they’re victims of sexual abuse at the very young age.”

To support his view that individuals choose their sexual orientation, Joseph said people should “look at the natural habitat. You never see a lion that mate(s) with a male lion for life. You never see a giraffe, a male giraffe, that mate(s) with a giraffe…. Myself right now saying I am a giraffe, that doesn’t mean it’s true.”

A 2025 documentary, “Animal Pride: Nature’s Coming Out Story,” and a 2024 documentary, “Queer Planet,” reported there are, indeed, giraffes, lions and other animals that engage in same-sex behavior.

Joseph is one of four Republicans seeking their party’s nomination in the 20th Congressional District in Broward County. Three of the four participated in a group interview with the South Florida Sun Sentinel Editorial Board on Tuesday, during which Joseph offered his views on sexuality in response to questions from an opinion writer and a news reporter.

The district includes Wilton Manors, the unofficial capital of the LGBTQ community in South Florida, plus the Victoria Park neighborhood in Fort Lauderdale and the city of Oakland Park, which both have large numbers of LGBTQ residents.

The subject came up after Joseph explained some of the reasons he left the Democratic Party and became a Republican. “I don’t believe in abortion. I don’t support the LGBTQ movement. I don’t support a lot of things. When I looked at it, I was a conservative in the Democratic Party. I was fighting with the party.”

The other Republican candidates, Brent Andersen and Lateresa “LA” Jones, said they disagreed with Joseph’s analysis of sexuality. Candidate Carla Spalding didn’t participate in the joint interview.

Amplifying on her assessment of Joseph’s comments, Jones said she was 62. “I am Black, American born and raised in this country, and I do find that I can’t make a statement like that because I don’t know how God made people. I do not,” she said. “I do know as I look over history, especially our history, there were so many people that had to … not become who they actually are” because of societal pressure.

“I pray that we become a nation where we embrace people for who God created them to be and who they are,” Jones said.

Elijah Manley, one of the five candidates for the Democratic nomination in the same district, is an out gay man. He said Joseph’s suggestion that sexual abuse is prime reason people are LGBTQ is “unfounded and baseless.”

“I think his response is incredibly ignorant. You’re born the way you are,” he said, adding that science hasn’t determined the reasons some people are LGBTQ. “Using science to push a bigoted, transphobic, homophobic agenda is shameful.”

Manley, who wasn’t part of the Republican candidates’ interview, said he was “very surprised” at Joseph’s comments. “I’ve had good conversations with him. Not once has he brought something like that up.”

“He’s also wrong about animals,” Manley added, pointing to the TV documentaries showing “there are plenty of animals that engage in relationships with animals of the same gender.”

Manley and Joseph are Black, as are an estimated 42% of the district’s voting-age population. Manley said views have changed in recent years. “People are much more positive on this issue now.”

Stratton Pollitzer, CEO and executive director of the LGBTQ civil rights organization Equality Florida, was also critical of Joseph’s comments.

“When they have no real solutions to offer on the issues that matter most to Floridians — affordability, housing, rising insurance costs, strengthening our economy — right wing politicians resort to their tired smokescreen of division, outrage and distraction. But voters are seeing through it and refusing to be duped,” he said.

The candidates were asked about their views of a social media post at the beginning of LGBTQ Pride month in June in which U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., declared “homosexuality has no place in America” and wished people a “Happy Nuclear Family Month.” After an outcry, including from some members of his own party, Ogles blamed a staffer and the post was deleted.

Joseph said he wasn’t going to opine on the original Ogles post, then offered his views about sexuality, emphasizing it should be private, and not be “promoted’ as a personal choice.

“People can be homosexual in their own bed, but I don’t want my kids to be indoctrinated, to think this is a choice … (that) it’s cool to be homosexual,” he said.

Andersen said the Ogles post was “an outrageous statement that should be condemned.” Jones said she agreed with Andersen.

She also added, like Joseph, she opposed any effort ‘to indoctrinate our children. I think our children should be able to go to school and they should go to school and to learn.”

The 20th District, which was changed this year, is basically a square in the central part of Broward, all north of Interstate 595. Most of its eastern boundary is Federal Highway or the FEC railroad tracks. Most of the northern boundary is Sample Road and much of the western boundary is the Sawgrass Expressway.

The partisan voting index from the nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the district as D plus 20, which means it performed 20 points more Democratic than the nation during the past two presidential contests.

It is so heavily Democratic that the Republican nominee has virtually no chance of winning the November election. Independent ratings, from Cook, Inside Elections and the University of Virginia Center for Politics, all rate it as a solid or safe Democratic district.