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At the center of a firestorm this week is Chris Craddock, the Republican candidate running for state delegate in the 67th District, after comments made last week to a Westfield High AP government class about both gays and sex in Africa.
Some students were so incensed by what they heard that they contacted Centre View because, although they're too young to vote, they wanted the general public to know how they felt.

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They then questioned him about his stance on topics including abortion and sex education.
"When we asked him about gay marriage, he said he believes nobody's born gay — they turn gay," said senior Natalie McLarty, 17. "He said, in his experience, from the gay males he's known, there are three ways to become gay: You don't have a father figure in your life, you have an abusive father figure or you have no loving support in your family."

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REGARDING SEX education, McLarty said Craddock said schools should teach that abstinence is the right choice until marriage, rather than providing information about condoms. "So I asked him, 'If we don't teach sex ed in school or give information about birth control, where are kids going to get this [knowledge]?'" she said. "Because, even if you do wait 'til marriage, you still need to know about birth control and protecting yourself against STDs and AIDS."
McLarty said she added that, if people aren't educated about this, then "like in Africa, we'll end up with a huge number more of STDS and AIDS cases."
She said Craddock told the class he had a friend who'd studied in Africa and told him the reason there's an AIDS epidemic there is because "Africans will have sex with anything that has a pulse."
Added senior Erin Peterson: "He said, in some tribes, part of becoming a woman was having sex." She, too, said she heard the "pulse" comment and was surprised that he'd say such a thing: "I'm African-American, so I was a little shocked."

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"I was completely taken aback. Our entire class — Democrats and Republicans alike — you could hear everybody gasping. There was complete silence; no one knew what to say. I went home and told my parents, and they were completely in shock."

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