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Ben Carson: Political Correctness Is 'Going to Destroy Our Nation'
He continued to double down on comments calling trans women "big, hairy men."
When he's not busy being a government slumlord, Ben Carson operates as a full-time transphobe.
The Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary has continued to doubled down on his transphobic remarks after calling trans women "big, hairy men" during an internal meeting with Whise House staff. During a House Financial Services committee hearing on homelessness Tuesday, House Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-Virginia) asked Carson whether he felt the need apologize for the comments, which were directed at homeless trans women seeking shelter.
"No," Carson responded, as the Washington Post was the first to report.
The former Johns Hopkins surgeon deflected criticism of his statements -- which sparked nationwide controversy -- by saying he was only relating what a women's group had told him. But when questioned by Wexton about the specifics of that explanation, Carson couldn't recall which group he was referencing.
Presumably filling out his Bingo card, Carson went onto blame the situation on PC culture.
"I think this whole concept of political correctness -- you can say this, you can't say that, you can't repeat what someone said -- is total foolishness," he told Wexton, saying "it's going to destroy our nation, and we need to be more mature than that."
\u201cToday I gave @SecretaryCarson the opportunity to apologize for his remarks slurring transgender women as, "big, hairy men."\n\nRegrettably, he declined that opportunity.\n\nHateful words translate into discriminatory policy\u2014and Secretary Carson has demonstrated that time and again.\u201d— Rep. Jennifer Wexton (@Rep. Jennifer Wexton) 1571764272
As thePost reported last month, dozens of HUD staffers were upset by Carson's remarks during the meeting, during which he claimed society doesn't know the difference between men and women anymore. He also reportedly said that single-sex homeless shelters should be able to turn away trans people at their sole discretion.
Democrats have condemned Carson's anti-trans remarks within the past month, even as he attempted to defend his views in a Fox News interview by citing the Bible, which says nothing about trans people. House Reps. Katie Hill (D-California) and Mike Quigley (D-Illinois) filed a resolution on October 1 stating, "[T]hose statements are incredibly disrespectful and reflect bigoted, outdated thinking that is both offensive and counterproductive to the mission of the agency."
Presidential candidates like Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, and Julian Castro also weighed in, with Castro and Warren calling upon Carson to resign over the remarks.
Carson's transphobia has real-world policy implications for LGBTQ+ people who seek public housing accommodations. Under Carson's tenure, the Trump administration has moved to allow homeless shelters to discriminate against trans people. In May, a proposal filed by housing officials allows shelters to create policies allowing them to factor in "religious beliefs" to their decisions and determine an individual's gender identity based solely upon government identification rather than their lived gender.
Carson already showed his true colors during the 2016 presidential race, though, saying that same-sex marriage would lead to "utter chaos," decrying the absurdity of "trangender stuff," and mocking the "silliness" of safe spaces on college campuses.
If anything, Carson has only made it even more clear that transphobia has a home in Trump's White House.
RELATED | These Democrats Just Condemned Ben Carson As Transphobic
