QOTD:A warped Republican
by digby
Chris Cuomo asked Ben Carson whether the courts should step in when people vote to violate the rights of some of their citizens as they are doing in some places on marriage equality. He referenced slavery as an example:
You can’t just say because it happened that way, this time this is the same situation,” Carson opined. “It’s not the same situation. Because people have no control over their race for instance.”
“You think they have control over their sexuality?” Cuomo wondered.
“Absolutely,” Carson replied.
“You think being gay is a choice,” Cuomo pressed.
“Absolutely,” Carson said. “Because a lot of people who go into prison, go into prison straight, and when they come out they’re gay. So, did something happen while they were in there? Ask yourself that question.”
I don’t know where he got that idea or if it’s true that when “a lot” of straight people come out of prison they are gay. I’m sure it happens. A lot of people go into college straight and come out gay. A lot of people probably join the military straight and come out gay. The fact is that a whole lot of people try to convince themselves they are straight and at some point realize they are gay. That does not denote a choice. It denotes a recognition.
And anyway, I don’t know what business it is of his whether people have a choice or are born gay in the first place as to whether or not they should have the right to marry. Either way he’s wrong. But it seems to me that he’s somehow referencing the hideous reality of prison rape and suggesting that this barbaric practice somehow turns people gay. Which is so gross I don’t even know what to say.
I would express shock and dismay that so many Republicans love what this man has to say, but why bother? To paraphrase Jonathan Capehart on MSNBC: the man has brilliant hands and a depraved mind.
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