How is this guy a brain surgeon? During his confirmation hearing this week, Ben Carson said that LGBTs want “extra rights.”
Carson is being considered for the role of Secretary of Housing and Urban Development — sure, why the hell not. Previously, he said that he shouldn’t have a role in the administration because he doesn’t have enough experience — kind of a funny position to take, given that he was also running for president at one point.
The statement came out when Senator Sherrod Brown asked him what he would do to ensure that LGBT people wouldn’t be kicked out of public housing for being gay. Currently, the law is shifting and vague — although the HUD issued multiple rules barring discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and identity, those guidelines haven’t been codified in law and continue to be the subject of lawsuits.
But Carson’s position: “What I have said before is I don’t think anyone should get extra rights.”
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That’s super, that wanting the security of knowing that you won’t be thrown out of your home is an “extra right.”
Here’s how Twitter responded:
This is who we want in charge? Ben Carson has said he thinks housing protections for LGBT people are "extra rights." https://t.co/wKT8zYsehh
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) January 12, 2017
During his confirmation hearing, Ben Carson said that LGBT Americans don’t deserve “extra rights." Really? It's 2017, sir. https://t.co/c1vm4govR4
— igorvolsky (@igorvolsky) January 12, 2017
Dr. Carson, no one is asking for “extra rights.” LGBTQ Americans must have equal protection under the law despite your political opinions.
— Ron Wyden (@RonWyden) January 12, 2017
HUD secretary nominee Ben Carson thinks housing protections for LGBT people are "extra rights." We strongly disagree https://t.co/9C6DgeszE6
— ACLU National (@ACLU) January 12, 2017
EXTRA RIGHTS. Ben Carson thinks LGBTQ+ folks want "extra rights" and that they don't deserve them. extra rights. let that sink in. pic.twitter.com/JfYnt9rSNo
— Kevin Allred (@KevinAllred) January 12, 2017
Carson loves to accuse queer people of demanding “extra rights.” Here’s what he said about LGBT people in the past:
“It’s one of the things that I don’t particularly like about the [LGBT] movement. I think everybody has equal rights, but I’m not sure that anybody should have extra rights—extra rights when it comes to redefining everything for everybody else and imposing your view on everybody else.”
And who could forget the time he said that marriage equality leads to polygamy?
But hey, Donald Trump once held up a rainbow flag that said “LGBTs for Trump” so we probably have nothing to worry about! You can totally trust Republicans to have your best interests at heart!
Brian
There is no such thing as an LGBTQ person. It’s impossible to be an LGBTQ person.
Identity politics is over. Done like a dinner.
1EqualityUSA
Maggie, your dinners were done in 2008.
Heywood Jablowme
@Brian: Way to miss the point. Nobody identifies as all 5 at the same time, brainiac.
So what would you say if a guy with “MHD” (your term for Male Homosexual Desire or whatever) were kicked out of public housing for having MHD?
DMRX
I’m surprised by this jerk’s non-disputed comments on such issues, since it was black people who were demanding what he calls “extra rights” not too far in the past.
I’m astounded, that for a supposedly intelligent person, he doesn’t understand the correlation.
Me2
@DMRX: Being black is not the same thing as being gay. Most republicans perceive one as being a choice.
Dez
@Brian: What the hell are you talking about? How is it impossible to be LGBT? So a man that wants to marry another man or a woman who wants to marry another woman isn’t gay? And there’s no such thing as transgender or bisexual people? You need to see a therapist and admit that you love dick.
1EqualityUSA
It’s not a choice, but even if it were, fellow Americans shouldn’t dictate, just as one can choose Catholicism over Jewish faiths. It is an identity that is respected legally; that is until the 3rd Breit singles out one particular religion. NOM-skull, Brian, is always denigrating identity. It is NOM’s flimsy attack on us.
Captain Obvious
@DMRX: So homophobia and ignorance only belongs to white people? What does being black have to do with Carson being an idiot?
dwes09
@abnerb: “when it comes to gay/lesbian topic, gay groups are against free speech rights if a person gives views which offend gays.”
Once again you demonstrate clearly that you are not particularly bright. there is a huge difference between a difference in opinion and advocating the abridgment (look it up idiot) of the rights of a federally designated suspect class (look that up too as i am sure you have no idea what it means). Let’s say for example that I were to say that Indians (not native americans) were greasy looking and smelled bad, is that an opinion that one needs to respect and tolerate? Let’s say i went on to say that Indians must be excluded from good neighborhoods, and should be denied housing based on their looks and smell, does that “opinion” need to be respected by the open minded?
Of course, in your ignorance and disingenuousness you will say “but one has no choice about being Indian”, so let’s change that to Hindus, or Evangelicals (as you are, though you lie and say you are not)…do you get it now dimwit?
dwes09
@abnerb: “but NAACP has not supported African nations such as Uganda’s right to have laws against gay/lesbian conduct.”
No of course they haven’t fool!! Because they understand the nature of oppression, and don;t see the need to “respect” the primitive country that would imprison or kill people for their intrinsic enotional make up which damages nobody and only involves consenting adults.
Please go away, your stupidity is tiresome, go cook some curry or do some bollywood dances. That is probably all you are good at, gollywog! (and don’t call me racist, you need to respect my opinion!)
dwes09
@abnerb: “but NAACP has not supported African nations such as Uganda’s right to have laws against gay/lesbian conduct.”
No of course they haven’t! Because they understand the nature of oppression, and don’t see the need to “respect” the primitive country that would imprison or kill people for their intrinsic emotional make up which damages nobody and only involves consenting adults.
Please go away, your uneducated attitude is tiresome. We get that you hate us, and we get that it is based on your Christian upbringing no matter how much you lie and say it is not.
dwes09
@Me2: Being black is not the same thing as being gay. Most republicans perceive one as being a choice.
Most Republicans are simply wrong. And even were being gay a choice, one is forbidden from discrimination on the basis of religion, and there is no argument at all that religion is anything but a choice!
The constitution requires equal protection under the law, end of story for all citizens. That includes LGBT people
Kangol
@DMRX: Don’t be r@cist and make dumb, ahistorical, generalizing comments about “black” people! You clearly have no sense at all of US or Western history, or you wouldn’t ever speak of “extra rights.” It’s called EQUALITY, and it still doesn’t exist. There, you’ve been schooled, fellow gay person.
Helen Barton
@abnerb: There’s a difference between “Free Speech” and “Hate Speech”. All free speech means is that you are protected from being arrested and punished by the government because of what you said. Free speech has nothing to do with being protected from criticism or rebuttal of other citizens because of your shitty opinions. As a trans woman, I’m all for free speech, but when it comes to speech that vilifies a particular group because they differ from what you deem to be acceptable, that should never go unchallenged. Tolerant people don’t have to tolerate intolerance.
BigWill
I guess I’m confused about the daily posters who come here who clearly aren’t gay for the purpose of, I suppose, insulting those who are. The thing is, you have to respect someone’s opinion in order to be insulted by them. For example: I live in NYC, and it’s not uncommon for unhinged people on the sidewalks or subway platforms to be yelling out various and sundry insults. And no one pays it much mind; we mainly just think, There’s, regrettably, a person who has a screw loose, and ignore them.
So, Mo, Alistair, et al, whatever satisfaction you’re getting? Good on you, I guess. But you’re not accomplishing what you think you are.
Chris
The U.S. surgeon general under Ronald Reagan dragged this nation into acknowledging AIDS as the crisis that it was. And now, another surgeon is trying to drag us back in time. How sad!
Hank
He is a hypocrite as all religious are, extra rights are tax exemptions for religious groups.
1EqualityUSA
Hank, so true.
Mo Bro
@BigWill:
I’ve never attempted to “accomplish” anything by voicing an opinion. If you’re threatened or otherwise offended by them, don’t read ’em.
@Hank:
Somehow, Hank, I’m doubting you’re including Islam in your blanket statement of denying religious exemptions.
@abnerb:
Funny, isn’t it, how all minorities believe it’s Wicked Whitey who’s out to get them, until they get a dose of reality and understand other minorities are even more bigoted.
woodroad34
@abnerb: I’m sure you’ve heard the adage, “your rights stop where my nose begins”. No one has a right against being slammed for dispensing false information like bigots do and trying to, otherwise, segregate and harm a segment of society. People who exhibit verifiable harmful behavior deserve to be ostracized for their anti-social activities.
Hank
@Mo Bro: Any religious group that has income should pay taxes. Even more because, both islam and christianity are equal in oppression and they the source of the world’s greatest problems.
1EqualityUSA
Any religion can quantify its success by staying open for business. If the U.S. government is ” financially helping” then how can individual organizations be accurately assessed?
Bob LaBlah
@Hank: “Any religious group that has income should pay taxes.”
If you read the Constitution closely no where in there does it say their exempt from taxes.
Brian
This idiot has also said that dinosaurs and humans coexisted. He is beyond stupid.
Heywood Jablowme
An aside: this is the ONLY picture of Sleepy Ben I’ve ever seen where he has his eyes open!
rand503
@abnerb: You are an idiot. Atlanta fire chief was NOT fired for writing a book on his own time. He was fired because ” of his lack of judgment and management skills, not his religious beliefs. Not only did Cochran violate the city’s code of conduct, which requires approval from city officials to publish a book, but he also distributed his book to employees who did not ask for it. Such behavior, the mayor said, opened the city to potential discrimination lawsuits.”
ChrisK
@dwes09: I don’t know about greasy and smelly but Indians are well known for being incredibly cheap.
1EqualityUSA
cheaper than this last shot?
TomChicago
The notion that “everybody has equal rights” has got to have come from some echo chamber on the right wing. It is a dim analysis of the real world, with numerous unhappy examples of just how dim it is.
tony-e
These are the kinds of people Trump is putting in charge of govt. agencies. So far the only pick that I agree with, and even that is just based on what I’ve seen of his confirmation hearing, is General Mattis as Secretary of Defense, mainly because based on what he said during the hearing about keeping the LGBT protections in the military that the Obama Administration put in place, which I’m sure was NOT what Trump and Pence were expecting (hoping) to hear