The U.S. Senate's Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee has scheduled a hearing on July 12 regarding the controversial nomination of University of Kentucky cardiologist and retired Major General James W. Holsinger to become the nation’s eighteenth Surgeon General. Pres. Bush’s selection of Dr. Holsinger has aroused an uproarious debate focused on his record on issues affecting homosexuals.

Among other things, as president of the Methodist Church's national Judicial Council, he voted last year to support a pastor who blocked a gay man from joining a congregation and in 2004 he voted to expel a lesbian pastor from the Methodist Church. In 1991 he wrote a paper titled “Pathophysiology of Male Homosexuality” for the Committee to Study Homosexuality of the United Methodist Church in which he likened the reproductive organs of men and women to "pipe fittings" and argued that homosexuality is therefore biologically unnatural and a cause of disease. Dr. Holsinger is also one of the founders of Hope Springs Community Church, a congregation that “ministers to people who no longer wish to be gay or lesbian” and professes to help them "walk out of that lifestyle". The church teaches that homosexuality is a matter of choice and can be "cured" through faith and prayer. His views on the naturalness, health effects, and curability of homosexuality are all contrary to the scientific evidence and public health policy, thus raising serious questions about his suitability to lead the U.S. Public Health Service.

On the other hand, colleagues who have worked with him say that he would never let his religious views affect his medical ones. F. Douglas Scutchfield, a professor and former Director of the School of Public Health at the University of Kentucky, says that, "Jim is able, as most of us are in medicine, to separate feelings that we have from our responsibility in taking care of patients".

A counterexample to the suggestion that Dr. Holsinger is a homophobe is provided by events while he was Chancellor of the University of Kentucky Medical Center, The UK Women's Health Center proposed to hold a session on lesbian health at the fifth annual Women's Health in Kentucky conference in response to requests on evaluations of the previous conferencence. Faced with opposition by two state senators who had harsh criticism for the break out session, Dr. Holsinger insisted that the session go on. He stated that, "I appreciate the concern of individuals, but I think it's important to educate health-care professionals on the issues that surround lesbians. It's important that professionals have the knowledge base to care for these patients in a quality manner.”

Laura Capps, a spokesperson for committee chair Edward Kennedy (D-Mass), said it was unclear whether witnesses would testify at the July twelfth meeting. It is also unclear whether the committee expects its deliberations on Holsinger to extend beyond July twelfth. If the committee approves the candidate, the nomination will go to the Senate floor for a final vote.

President Bush, in nominating Dr. Holsinger last May, described him as “an accomplished physician who has led one of our Nation's largest healthcare systems, the State of Kentucky's healthcare system, and the University of Kentucky's medical center”. He further stated that, "Dr. Holsinger will particularly focus his efforts on educating parents and children about childhood obesity, a serious epidemic that decreases quality of life and burdens our healthcare system". Dr. Holsinger was widely praised for the campaign against childhood obesity among poor children in Appalachia that he developed while serving as Secretary of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services of the Commonwealth of Kentucky..