Trump official Ben Carson doubles down on anti-trans comments by quoting the Bible
Catholic bishops have praised the plan put forward by Ben Carson (Shannon Finney/Getty)
Donald Trump’s housing and urban development secretary Ben Carson has refused to apologise for describing transgender women as “hairy men”, responding to criticism by quoting Bible verses.
Carson has faced scrutiny after embarking on an anti-trans tirade during an internal department meeting, with at least one staffer walking out in protest last week after Carson referred to trans women as “hairy men”.
Staffers also alleged that Carson, who has gutted protections for homeless trans people, vented that society “no longer seems to know the difference between men and women”.
However, the senior Trump official has refused to walk back or apologise for his comments.
Ben Carson claims he is being persecuted over ‘Biblical values’.
In an interview with Tucker Carlson on Fox News, he claimed: “I simply pointed out the fact that we have to have policies that take into consideration everybody’s rights. Everybody has equal rights, nobody gets extra rights.”
He added: “If I wake up tomorrow and feel like I’m Chinese, it doesn’t necessarily make me Chinese. There are biological and scientific issues.
“Somebody wants to be transgender? That’s fine, but we also have to take into consideration other people.
“They’ve already made up their mind that I hate transgender people, which is completely untrue. The Bible tells us that we have to love everybody, and that Jesus died for everybody.
“I truly believe that. It also tells you that if you stick to Biblical principles, you will be persecuted, so I’m not surprised at that either. But it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t always try to do what is right.”
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson (Zach Gibson/Getty)
He said that shelters should have the freedom to discriminate against trans women, adding: “If you have a women’s shelter and you’ve been operating well, you get to decide how you’re going to run that.
“The federal government doesn’t need to be telling people who’s a man or who’s a woman. That’s a decision they can make by themselves.”
Trump official defends conduct in message to staff.
According to The Washington Post, Carson also sent a note to staff that claims he was reflecting concerns “from many women’s groups” about “men would claim to be women”.
He claimed: “One of the groups described a situation to me in which ‘big hairy men’ would come in and have to be accepted into the women’s shelter even though it made the women in the facility very uncomfortable.”
Carson wrote: “Our society is in danger when we pick one issue (such as gender identity) and say it does not matter how it impacts others because this one issue should override every other common-sense consideration.
“I think we have to look out for everyone, and we need to use our intellectual capabilities to find common good rather than attempting to always stir up controversy through identity politics.”
Ben Carson has a long anti-LGBT+ history.
Carson had a long history of anti-LGBT comments before taking up the role, comparing gay people to paedophiles and claiming that equal marriage is part of a Marxist plot.
In 2015, Carson claimed that prisons ‘prove’ being gay is a choice, and while running for president in 2016, he likened transgender people to racists who put on different accents.
He said: “For someone to wake up and think that they belong to a different sex because they feel different that day is the same as if you woke up and said, ‘I’m Afghani today because I saw a movie about that last night.'”
