Oh, Dr. Ben Carson.
According to The Hill, “During Ben Carson’s Senate confirmation hearing on Jan. 12, 2017, 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.’
‘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, as a heterosexual, is legally able to marry one person of any race of his choice. The “any race of your choice” capability was granted to all Americans in 1967.
Homosexual people are each legally able to marry one person of the race of their choice.
Homosexuals do not have an “extra” right, compared to heterosexuals, to quote Carson.
It’s “equal,” it’s not “extra.”
There was a time when Carson could not marry a woman who was not black. Following his logic, enabling white people to marry black people would be a “redefinition” of marriage. I’m sure that he doesn’t see interracial marriage as a “redefinition” of marriage.
If he does, then would he say that black people and white people and Asian people (for example) do not get to “redefine” marriage? And would he then believe that the ability to enter into an interracial marriage constitutes an “extra right”? If that right is “extra,” is it an “extra” right provided to black people or white people or Asian people?
To be clear, gay people have not redefined marriage. In the same way that the Loving decision in 1967 made interracial marriage legal, the Windsor decision in 2013 made same-sex marriage legal in the United States. Both of those decisions were made by the Supreme Court of the United States.
I trust Carson and others can see how their argument against gay people and marriage unravels when they base it on the “definition” of marriage.