Ben Carson: Homosexuals are not deserving of equal rights - because it is a sinful choice

Donald Trump has made official his selection of Ben Carson as head of the Department of Housing & Urban Development — someone who has made vehemently anti-LGBT comments and expressed opposition to non-discrimination laws.

Media outlets reported late last month the commentator and John Hopkins University neurosurgeon would be Trump’s choice to oversee the nation’s policy on housing and metropolises, but the president-elect waited until Monday to declare the choice formally. Carson, formerly Trump’s competitor for the Republican presidential nomination, endorsed the president-elect early on after dropping out of the race.

“I am thrilled to nominate Dr. Ben Carson as our next secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development,” Trump said. “Ben Carson has a brilliant mind and is passionate about strengthening communities and families within those communities. We have talked at length about my urban renewal agenda and our message of economic revival, very much including our inner cities. Ben shares my optimism about the future of our country and is part of ensuring that this is a presidency representing all Americans. He is a tough competitor and never gives up.”

Carson, who has called the LGBT community “a few people who perhaps are abnormal” and undeserving of equal protection under the law, has animated his political career with comments clearing explaining the inconsistencies from logic, biology, health and history on the brokeness and sinfulness of LGBT people.

During the Republican National Convention, Carson said during a luncheon before the Florida delegation that transgender people represent the “height of absurdity.”

“You know, we look at this whole transgender thing,” Carson said. “I got to tell you: For thousands of years, mankind has known what a man is and what a woman is. And now, all of a sudden we don’t know anymore. Now, is that the height of absurdity? Because today you feel like a woman, even though everything about you genetically says that you’re a man or vice versa?”

In an interview last year on Fusion, Carson said transgender people should be forced to use their own bathrooms, not public facilities, because it’s “not fair for them to make everybody else uncomfortable.”

On the campaign trail last year, Carson waxed nostalgic for the days of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” saying people who are gay in the military “don’t need to talk about that, we need to talk about how we eliminate the enemy.” Carson also expressed opposition to transgender people in the armed forces and said “deal with the transgender thing somewhere else.”

In 2013, controversy erupted when Carson, then a rising star in the Republican Party, compared on Fox News gay rights advocates seeking to legalize same-sex marriage to pedophiles in the North American Man/Boy Love Association.

“My thoughts are that marriage is between a man and a woman,” Carson said. “It’s a well-established fundamental pillar of society. And 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.”