Ben Carson

—5.22.19 –  HUD under Ben Carson announced plans to rescind Obama-era policy which asked homeless shelters receiving federal dollars to grant transgender Americans the ability to use facilities according to their gender identity. 

—4.04.19 – Refused to reinstate housing protection guidelines that would prevent LGBTQ Americans from experiencing discrimination while attaining a home, which include access to homeless shelters. 

—3.20.18 – Secretary Carson defends the removal of transgender non-discrimination guidelines aimed to protect transgender people in homeless shelters by promoting the derogatory myth that these protections would compromise others’ safety or privacy.

—3.7.18 – The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development under Carson eliminated references to “inclusive” communities and “communities free from discrimination” from its guiding statement.

—8.22.17 – Reporting reveals that HUD, led by Carson, removed guidelines and training documents to ensure transgender people have equal access to homeless shelters. HUD also pulled back a survey regarding plans in Cincinnati and Houston to reduce LGBT homelessness.

—6.8.17 – Defended cuts to housing programs for low-income people living with HIV and AIDS in President Trump’s budget proposal during a House appropriations subcommittee hearing.

—In a Fox News appearance, equated gay people with bestiality and the North American Man/Boy Love Association: “Marriage is between a man and a woman. No group, be they gays, be they NAMBLA, be they people who believe in bestiality, it doesn’t matter what they are. They don’t get to change the definition.”

—Claimed marriage equality advocates are “directly attacking the relationship between God and His people.”

—In his 2012 book, wrote of marriage equality: “If we can redefine marriage as between two men or two women or any other way based on social pressures as opposed to between a man and a woman, we will continue to redefine it in any way that we wish, which is a slippery slope with a disastrous ending, as witnessed in the dramatic fall of the Roman Empire.”

—Said current “political correctness” is like Nazi Germany (43:30-44:55): “As we’ve evolved more and more into a politically correct situation, we don’t even want to talk about what the family is supposed to do versus what the school is supposed to do–what the responsibilities are of fathers and mothers–it really has degenerated to that level, not because our whole society has degenerated to that level but because the loudest voices, and particularly the media, has tried to pretty much force that upon people and people have not stood up. People have not spoken up. Ya know, this country was supposed to be for, of, and by the people, but the people have become silent—very much like the people in Nazi Germany were silent. Most of them did not agree with what Hitler was doing, but they kept their mouth shut and you see what happened. And exactly the same thing will happen to the freedoms that we enjoy in America and the kind of nation that we’ve had if people don’t speak up. They need to rise up. They need to say to political correctness: ‘Take a hike! This is who we are. This is what we believe in. These are the principles that allowed us to become the pinnacle nation in the world record time, and we are not about to throw them out the window for the sake of political correctness.’”

—Responded to criticism about his comments linking being gay to NAMBLA and bestiliaty by accusing liberals of racism: “They’re the most racist people there are…. Because they put you in a little category, a box: ‘You have to think this way, how could you dare come off the plantation?’”

—Said marriage equality is “finger-in-your-eye-to-God” territory.

—Insisted that sexual orientation is a choice “because a lot of people who go into prison go into prison straight — and when they come out, they’re gay. So, did something happen while they were in there? Ask yourself that question.”

—Compared marriage equality to bad math, alluding to Orwell’s 1984: “What the gay marriage advocates are advocating is something like a new set of mathematicians who come along and say that two plus two is five. Then you’ve got the traditional mathematicians that say two plus two is four, it’s always been four. The new ones say that no, we insist that it’s five. The old ones say then, OK, we’ll say that it’s four and you can say that it’s five. But the new ones are insistent that it’s five for you, too; and if you don’t say that it’s five, then you’re a mathist or a mathophobe. Basically, that’s what happened in our society. People have to stand up to them. They are being totally intolerant.”

—Speaking at a post-event press conference, joked that same-sex couples seeking a wedding cake from an anti-LGBTQ baker “is really not all that smart because they might put poison in that cake.”

—Called on Congress to remove judges who decided in favor of marriage equality.

—Said he “would certainly get involved” in reversing the Supreme Court’s marriage equality ruling.

—As a presidential candidate signed a pledge to support legislation called the “First Amendment Defense Act,” which would prohibit the federal government from “taking discriminatory action against a person on the basis that such person believes or acts in accordance with a religious belief or moral conviction that: (1) marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman, or (2) sexual relations are properly reserved to such a marriage.”