Ben Carson presidential campaign, 2016/Gay rights

	; ; Presidential candidate; Ben Carson
	Profession: ; Retired Pediatric Neurosurgeon;
	Carson on the issues:
	Taxes • Banking policy • Government regulations • Budgets • Agricultural subsidies • Federal assistance programs • Foreign affairs • Federalism • Natural resources • Healthcare • Immigration • Education • Abortion • Gay rights
	Republican candidate:
	Donald Trump
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Ben Carson announced his presidential run on May 3, 2015.^[1]

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This page was current as of the 2016 election.

Barry Bennett, Ben Carson’s former campaign manager, continued to publicly discuss why he believed Carson’s campaign has stalled on January 20, 2016. “He's also a 64-year-old African-American male, who culturally is what he is right? He's not comfortable with homosexuality, right? And there was nothing we could do to make him talk about it in a lexicon that is much more modern,” Bennett said during an event at the Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service.^[2]

Retired Major Gen. Robert Dees, Carson’s new campaign chairman, said on January 4, 2016, that the U.S. must reconsider “experiments” in the military with women in combat and openly LGBT service members. “There are just certain realities where men can do certain things better, women can do certain things better. We don't need to throw everybody into every position as an experiment just because we're trying to be appear [sic] to be fair to everyone,” Dees said. He also recommended that military experts’ positions on LGBT soldiers serving openly be considered, with “cohesion” being the focus of any such input. When asked if he agreed with Dees’ position, Carson said, “One of the things that I learned in a long medical career is that you make decisions based on evidence, and not on ideology. So yes, I would be willing to sit down with people from both sides and examine the evidence and make decisions based on what the evidence shows.”^[3]

At a town hall hosted by Concerned Veterans for America on December 5, 2015, Carson opposed transgender individuals openly serving in the military. “I do not appreciate using our military as a laboratory for a social experiment. … When our men and women are out there fighting the enemy, the last thing we need to be doing is saying what would it be like if we introduced several transgender people into this platoon. … Give me a break. Deal with the transgender thing somewhere else.” Carson added that he preferred the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.^[4]

In a November 5, 2015, interview with Fusion's Jorge Ramos, Carson suggested that transgender people get their own bathrooms. “How about we have a transgender bathroom?” Carson said. “It is not fair for them to make everybody else uncomfortable. 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.” In a country founded on “live and let live,” Carson said he believes LGBT Americans “can do anything they want.” Carson also maintained his support for marriage between a man and woman in the interview. His comments followed the defeat, on November 3, 2015, of a ballot initiative in Houston that would have enacted new LGBT protections, but the most contentious portion would allow the transgender community to use the bathroom of their choice.^[5]

Reuters reported on October 30, 2015, that as a member of the boards of retailer Costco Wholesale and food manufacturer Kellogg, Carson supported various gay rights initiatives at both companies, such as barring discrimination based on gender identity, providing health insurance for employees' domestic partners, and offering more diversity training. His support raised concerns with some social conservative activists that back Carson. Carson argued that he has never strayed from his message of support for traditional marriage. "As far as conservatives are concerned, I've made my position clear to them as well. I believe in traditional marriage. But I don't have anything against the gay community," Carson told Reuters.^[6]

During the third Republican debate, held on October 28, 2015, Carson was asked about discrimination against the LGBT community. He said, "I believe that our Constitution protects everybody, regardless of their sexual orientation or any other aspect. I also believe that marriage is between one man and one woman. And there is no reason that you can't be perfectly fair to the gay community. They shouldn't automatically assume that because you believe that marriage is between one man and one woman that you are a homophobe. And this is one of the myths that the left perpetrates on our society, and this is how they frighten people and get people to shut up. You know, that's what the PC culture is all about, and it's destroying this nation."^[7]

In August 2015, Carson signed a pledge with the National Organization for Marriage “to take several specific actions as president to restore marriage to the law and protect people of faith from discrimination because of their support for traditional marriage.”^[8]

On June 26, 2015, Ben Carson expressed his disagreement with the holding in Obergefell v. Hodges, but conceded the Supreme Court's "ruling is now the law of the land." Carson added, "I call on Congress to make sure deeply held religious views are respected and protected. The government must never force Christians to violate their religious beliefs. I support same sex civil unions but to me, and millions like me, marriage is a religious service not a government form."^[9]

During his 2014 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) speech, Carson said, "I still believe that marriage is between a man and a woman. You know, because I happened to mention that nobody gets to change the definition of marriage and mention some other categories, they said, 'Carson said that gay marriage and bestiality are the same thing.' Well, that’s preposterous, of course they’re not the same thing. Anybody who believes that is a dummy, but anybody who believes somebody who said that somebody said that is a dummy. ...And then, of course gay people should have the same rights as everyone else, but they don’t get extra rights. They don’t get to redefine marriage."^[10]

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