Presidential hopeful Ben Carson has described same sex marriage as giving extra rights to abnormal people.
The presidential candidate, who hopes to secure the Republican party’s nomination for this year’s election was appearing a Catholic News Network when he was asked what he would do to stop schools having to allow transgender students to use the bathroom of their choice.
Host Matthew Franck from Witherspoon Institute has been conducting a series of interviews with presidential candidates.
Carson said that this was a good example of where states and local government should be making decisions rather than federal authorities. Carson said if the next President allowed pro-LGBTI rights judges to join the Supreme Court you can “say goodbye to America.”
“You see how silly this is,” said. “I mean, it’s beyond ridiculous that you take the most abnormal situation and then you make everyone else conform to it. That doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. That’s one of the very reasons that I have been an outspoken opponent of things like gay marriage.
“I don’t have any problem with gay people doing anything they want to do. You know, it’s a free country, there’s freedom of association.
“However, when you now impose your value system on everybody else and change fundamental definitions and principles of society, I have a big problem with that. Everybody is equal, everybody has equal rights, but nobody gets extra rights. And when we start trying to impose the extra rights based on a few people who perhaps are abnormal, where does that lead?” Dr Carson asked.
The Republican candidate said the legalisation of same sex marriage in the USA had opened the door for polygomous marriages and other forms of unions demanding recognition.
The exchange was captured by political website RightWing Watch, watch the exchange below.
Carson also has recently suggested bringing back the controversial ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy which prevented LGBT people from serving openly in the US military. Dr Carson has said that he’d consider firing all gay people from the armed forces if elected.
