Ben Carson is a retired neurosurgeon who is exploring a possible run for president in 2016.
He is also an idiot.
On the surface, he does not appear to be an idiot. Carson has received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, written six best-selling novels and in 2014 was the sixth most admired man in the world, according to a Gallup poll. However, his impressive resume does not make up for his ignorant views on homosexuality, which he recently shared with the nation.
In an interview last Wednesday, CNN Anchor Chris Cuomo asked the presidential hopeful if being gay was a choice.
Carson’s reply? “Absolutely.”
He then went on to “prove” that homosexuality is a choice by citing prison rape.
“A lot of people who go into prison go into prison straight — and when they come out, they’re gay,” Carson said. “So, did something happen while they were in there? Ask yourself that question.”
Backlash was immediate, as was ridiculue. Carson was apologizing for his statement by the end of the day, claiming CNN took his words out of context, but the damage was already done. Glenn Beck went so far as to declare Carson’s presidential run dead in the water based on the statement alone.
“It’s over,” Beck said. “There is no way to recover from that. That just sounds like a lunatic. That is a ridiculous statement on a million fronts.”
The backlash from Beck, who is known for his own outlandish statements, may be the final nail in the coffin of Carson’s presidential run. If the right-wing media is already abandoning him, he has no chance of even making it through the primaries.
Sadly, Carson’s views on homosexuality aren’t as much of a fringe belief as they seem to be. In a Gallup poll conducted last year, 42 percent of respondents believed that people are born gay, while 37 percent believed sexual orientation can be determined by external factors, such as someone’s upbringing.
It is not Carson’s assertion that homosexuality is a choice that is controversial. It is the evidence he used to back it up.
Prison rape is not something Americans are accustomed to taking seriously. It is most often brought up in comedic context, used to punctuate a joke about a man going to jail for a crime and becoming the sexual partner of a larger alpha-male against his will.
Prison rape is not funny. No rape is funny, ever, especially not rape that happens as a consequence of America’s deeply flawed criminal justice system. It is also, according to many psychological schools of thought, completely divorced from sexuality.
Clinical psychologist A. Nicholas Groth, author of “Men Who Rape: The Psychology of the Offender,” said in his book all sexual assault is an act of aggression.
“It is not about sexual gratification,” he said, “but rather a sexual aggressor using somebody else as a means of expressing their own power and control.”
Psychologists are also mostly united in their belief that people are born with their sexuality predetermined. Biologists, too, have performed study after study on homosexuality, finding again and again that homosexuality is an inborn trait.
This scientific evidence is at odds with Carson’s beliefs, though. So he chose, despite being an incredibly intelligent man, to ignore evidence and cite his own perceived explanation, doing so with the smugness of someone who believes they have solved an unsolvable riddle and finally holds an answer the world has been waiting to hear.
Nobody wanted to hear Carson’s solution to the ever persisting question of whether sexuality is determined at birth. Nobody wanted him to cite the serious problem that is male-on-male prison rape as evidence for an assertion with which the scientific and medical community are at direct odds with.
Carson may have been the first surgeon to ever separate twins conjoined at the head, but he won’t be our first black Republican president. His candidacy is over, and he hasn’t even officially declared he’s running yet.
But Carson was the first presidential candidate in the 2016 race to say something ridiculously backwards and ignorant about the gay community.
Unfortunately, as gay rights become more of a “hot button” issue for the right, and as the highly contested race for the Republican nomination heats up, he will undoubtedly not be the last.
Logan Anderson is a 21-year-old mass communication senior from Houston, Texas. You can reach her on Twitter @LoganD_Anderson.