Potential GOP presidential candidate
Ben Carson has apologized for saying that prison can make people gay.
Appearing on CNN's New Day,
Carson was asked if being gay was a choice.
“Absolutely,” Carson answered.
“Because a lot of people go into prison straight and when they come
out they're gay.”
(Related: Ben
Carson opposed to marriage equality because some inmates turn gay in
prison.)
“I do not pretend to know how every
individual came to their sexual orientation,” Carson said in a
statement released later in the day. “I regret that my words to
express that concept were hurtful and divisive. For that I apologize
unreservedly to all that were offended.”
“I'm a doctor trained in multiple
fields of medicine, who was blessed to work at perhaps the finest
institution of medical knowledge in the world. Some of our brightest
minds have looked at this debate, and up until this point there have
been no definitive studies that people are born into a specific
sexuality,” he added. “We do know, however, that we are always
born male and female. And I know that we are all made in God’s
image, which means we are all deserving of respect and dignity.”
Appearing on Sean Hannity's radio show,
Carson said that he would no longer talk about gay rights.
“I simply have decided I'm not going
to really talk about that issue anymore,” he
said. “Every time I'm gaining momentum, the political press
says, 'Let's talk about gay rights.' And I'm just not going to fall
for that anymore.”
Meanwhile, Helen Eigenberg, professor
of criminal justice at the University of Tennessee, called Carson's
theory “insane.”
“The fundamental assumption of the
analogy he's using is insane,” said
Eigenberg, who has studied sexuality and incarceration for 25
years. “I don't know of any research that substantiates the
[claim] that men go to prison and come out gay. There's no data to
support that claim.”