A Sarasota city commissioner still embroiled in controversy regarding responses on an Equality Florida questionnaire said Wednesday that she remains as committed to ever to protecting the legal rights of all citizens, but also stood firm that her faith does not personally condone homosexuality.

Commissioner Shelli Freeland Eddie said she supports city actions including the establishment of domestic registries for same-sex couples and the inclusion of transgender people as a class protected from discrimination. But when asked if she felt being gay was a choice, she turned to her faith for answers. “Based upon my faith I don’t think you are born homosexual,” Eddie said. The comments came during an interview on The Nilon Report on WSRQ, where she was interviewed by host Susan Nilon and SRQ Senior Editor Jacob Ogles.

Eddie last week sent an email to Equality Florida clarifying that while she supported the legal rights of same-sex couples and of a woman’s right to choose, gay marriage and abortion both violate her personal beliefs, so she wanted responses to survey questions in support of marriage equality and reproductive choice to have that information added. Eddie says now she worded the email poorly. She has apologized to Equality Florida, and said she is now in the process of regaining the trust of her constituents.

When asked why she felt the need to clarify her views to a gay organization as opposed to the faith-based community, Eddie said she communicated with Equality Florida because that group had endorsed her, and she felt an obligation to clarify her views with that group following the U.S. Supreme Court decision making same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states. “I didn’t want there to be a grey area, so to speak,” she said.

The entire interview, which also covered city issues including the moving of elections and construction of Lift Station 87, can be heard at sarasotatalkradio.com.