Ben Carson stands by claim that gay marriage leads to pedophilia and bestiality

Potential GOP presidential candidate refuses to back down from inflammatory remarks

Published December 22, 2014 2:10PM (EST)

  (Jeffery Malet, maletphoto.com)
(Jeffery Malet, maletphoto.com)

Ben Carson, the incendiary conservative commentator and potential 2016 presidential candidate, isn't backing down from his claim that allowing same-sex couples to wed will lead to acceptance of pedophilia and bestiality.

In an interview with the New York Times, Carson addressed the controversy surrounding his remarks, which he made on Fox News' "Hannity" in 2013. The remarks attracted widespread criticism and led to his withdrawal as the commencement speaker at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. At the time, Carson apologized for his remarks "if I offended anyone," but speaking with the Times' Trip Gabriel, he was decidedly less conciliatory.

“When I mention bestiality or pedophilia in the same sentence with homosexuality, people say ‘Carson says they’re the same.’ Of course they’re not the same. That point was if you change the definition of marriage for one group, you’ll have to change it for the next group and the next group,” Carson said.

While not a single country or state to legalize same-sex marriage has subsequently allowed pedophilia and bestiality, Carson isn't known for his level-headedness when discussing the subject. In a 2012 book, Carson warned that marriage equality could lead the U.S. to collapse, "as witnessed in the dramatic fall of the Roman Empire."


By Luke Brinker

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