President Trump’s Cabinet pick Ben Carson reiterated his belief Thursday that LGBT Americans don’t deserve “extra rights.”
During Carson’s confirmation hearing, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) pressed the Housing and Urban Development nominee about whether he would enforce LGBT protections in the public housing sector.
“Of course, I would enforce all the laws of the land,” Carson responded. “Of course, I think all Americans should be protected by the law.”
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“What I have said before is I don’t think anyone should get ‘extra rights,’” he added.
Carson’s remarks mirror those from his 2014 CPAC speech: “Of course gay people should have the same rights as everyone else, but they don’t get extra rights,” Carson said at the time. “They don’t get to redefine marriage.”
Carson, a conservative Christian, has often run afoul of the LGBT community, suggesting they take advantage of “political correctness.”
During a 2015 speech to the Iowa Freedom Summit, Carson addressed religious freedom concerns raised by Christian bakers who argued it violates their faith to bake wedding cakes for gay people.
“[That] is really not all that smart, because they might put poison in that cake,” Carson joked.