Trump HUD secretary Ben Carson mocked for ‘stupid’ LGBT+ discrimination stance
HUD Secretary Ben Carson testifies before Congress (Win McNamee/Getty)
Donald Trump’s Housing and Urban Development (HUD) secretary Ben Carson was blasted by a congressman for his “stupid” justification for pulling down LGBT+ non-discrimination guidance.
Carson was appearing before the House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday (April 3) when he was challenged by Democratic Rep. Mike Quigley over the decision to revoke non-discrimination guidance.
The Trump official came under scrutiny in 2017 after public non-discrimination guidance relating to LGBT+ homelessness was stripped from the HUD website.
HUD Secretary Ben Carson gave baffling excuse for stripping LGBT+ discrimination guidance
Although the department claimed the guidance had been removed for “review,” Carson confirmed to Quigley that it would not be replaced.
Quigley said: “For the community, this decision hurts. 40 percent of homeless youth are LGBTQ.
“LGBTQ youth are far more likely to become homeless and far more likely to be discriminated against at shelters, so that’s frustrating.”
HUD Secretary Ben Carson testifies before Congress (Win McNamee/Getty)
Asked to justify the decision, Carson replied: “We concluded that putting regulatory guidance there confused the issue, and actually made more regulations necessary.”
The HUD chief also said that LGBT+ non-discrimination rules themselves remain in effect, despite the removal of all guidance to help housing providers comply by the rules.
He added: “The agreement was that the guidance would be reviewed, it wasn’t that it would be put back up. They were reviewed.”
Mike Quigley struggled to get an answer from Ben Carson
Quigley responded: “If all you’re doing is trying to clarify [the rules]… doesn’t it make sense to create new guidance, and post that, so that grantees know, and the youth of this country know that they have rights and they can’t be discriminated against?”
Carson then claimed: “From my conversations with many legal experts throughout government, my suspicion is you would probably dislike the guidance that would be put up, and that [not putting up guidance] provides you with considerably more freedom.”
After Carson suggested Quigley “wouldn’t like” the guidance, the lawmaker asked : “Why is that? I’m a glutton for punishment. Because it goes along with discriminating against LGBTQ youth?”
However, Carson replied: “The rules that are there allow people to have a non-discriminatory atmosphere, and that is what we are trying to achieve.”
After several more back-and-forth exchanges yielding no further information, Quigley concluded: “We are all now more stupid than when we came in the room today, sir. Thank you.”
Ben Carson has extreme anti-LGBT record
Carson has a long anti-LGBT record.
In 2013 he apologised for comparing gay people to paedophiles and insisting that prisons ‘prove’ being gay is a choice.
During his 2017 confirmation hearing, Carson doubled down on his past comments, attacking “extra rights” or gay people.
The Republican has previously insisted that same-sex marriage is a Marxist plot from the New World Order, claiming in a speech to a listed anti-LGBT hate group that gay weddings are part of a plan “to destroy unity [and] bring America down.”
Carson has also claimed that gay people were responsible for the fall of the Roman Empire, warned that “there will be mass killings once again” over same-sex marriage, and insisted that gay weddings are like car seats for conjoined twins.
