GOP Contender Carson: Gay Rights Aren't Civil Rights

Republican presidential contender Ben Carson said Wednesday that he is “irritated” by comparisons of gay Americans’ struggle for same-sex marriage rights to the civil rights battles of the 1950s and 1960s. (Photo via Facebook)

» Get Patch’s daily newsletter and real-time news alerts.

Republican presidential candidate and Detroit native Dr. Ben Carson said Wednesday that he is “irritated” by comparisons of same-sex marriage rights to African-Americans’ struggle for voting equality in the 1950s and 1960s

Speaking with FOX News host Brett Baier, Carson said there’s no evidence that gays have been segregated, as African-Americans were until the civil rights movement. He was addressing harsh criticism directed at him in March after he suggested that being gay is a choice.

“Because a lot of people who go into prison go into prison straight – and when they come out, they’re gay,” he told CNN host Chris Cuomo at the time. “So, did something happen while they were in there? Ask yourself that question.”

He later apologized for the remarks, and said during the FOX interview Wednesday that his statement was “boneheaded” and he shouldn’t have allowed his emotions to surface in the interview.

“I was a little bit irritated that he was equating the whole [gay marriage] issue with the Civil Rights movement,” the presidential contender said. “Because, quite frankly, I didn’t remember any times when there were signs up that says, you know, ‘everybody else here and gay people have to drink at this fountain.’ ”

Also on Patch:

• Ted Cruz Makes Fun of Joe Biden as VP Mourns Son’s Death
• Critics Bash Michigan Governor for Signing Religious Objection Adoption Bill
• Carson Says He’s Sorry for Saying Being Gay is a Choice

Many expected the faux pas to be fatal to his campaign, but he told FOX the opposite has been true.

“They saw that as the opportunity to finally knock this guy out – and they thought that they had done it. Stick a fork in him, he’s gone. They were jubilant,” he said of his critics. “And now they’re saying, I can’t believe this guy’s still here, are you kidding me?”

Carson’s remarks to FOX came as the U.S. Supreme Court is on the verge of ruling on same-sex marriage cases in Michigan and three other states that could finally settle what has been termed one of the most contentious civil rights issues of modern times.

Carson Suggests Covert Group to Spy on Government Workers

Carson, a celebrated neurosurgeon best known for his work separating conjoined twins as the head of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Medical Center, is a political neophyte who promised supporters “blunt” talk when he announced his run for the White House last month.

So far, he isn’t disappointing.

Campaigning in Iowa Wednesday, he raised eyebrows when he said that if elected, he might create “a covert division of people” who would spy on government workers and monitor their productivity. He said that could cause them to work harder.

Carson’s communications director, Doug Watts, told MSNBC that the covert division would be “more like Secret Shopper, a quality control strategy used worldwide to improve customer service and customer care.”

Carson is considered a longshot for the Republican presidential nomination. In a CNN/ORC poll released last week, he finished seventh among likely voters with 7 percent support, behind Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, Mike Huckabee, Scott Walker, Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, who had 14 percent, 13 percent, 10 percent, 10 percent, 8 percent and 8 percent, respectively.

Carson gained political prominence at the National Prayer Breakfast in 2013 when he decried the “moral decay” in America. He also has criticized President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act to slavery, and he has said the United States resembles Nazi Germany.