No, I am not a homosexual. If I were a homosexual, I would hope I would have the courage to say so. What’s cruel is that you are forcing me to say I am not a homosexual. This means you are putting homosexuals down. I don’t want to do that.

Koch’s statement pushes back against the premise that a public figure owes the public a declaration about private sexuality, while also highlighting the stigma embedded in the question itself. By saying he would “hope” to have the courage to come out if he were gay, he frames openness as a moral good and implicitly criticizes a culture that makes such honesty risky. His key move is to argue that being compelled to deny homosexuality treats “not gay” as the socially acceptable answer—thereby “putting homosexuals down.” The quote thus functions both as a personal boundary and as a critique of homophobia in political discourse.