Christian conservative celebrity and
presidential hopeful Ben Carson on Friday said that it would be
unfair to “other groups” if gay and lesbian couples could marry.
Carson, one of the six announced
candidates for the Republican presidential nomination, made his
remarks during an interview with CNBC's John Harwood.
“If you change the definition of
marriage for one group, what do you say to the next group?” Carson
said.
“What is the next group?” Harwood
asked.
“Do you say, 'Well we changed it for
this group, but that's it, we're not changing it for anybody else.'
Does that seem fair?”
“But what other groups are there? …
Honest to God, I don't know what you're talking about.”
“Other variations on traditional
marriage,” Carson answered.
“You mean like bigamy or something?”
“That's a possibility,” Carson
replied.
In 2013, Carson was forced to apologize
for comments he made on Fox News suggesting that allowing gay couples
to marry would lead to bestiality and pedophilia.
“It's a well-established, fundamental
pillar of society, and no group, be the gays, be they NAMBLA, be they
people who believe in bestiality – it doesn't matter what they are
– they don't get to change the definition,” he said, referring to
the North American Man Boy Love Association, a group which is thought
to no longer exist.
After
a more recent uproar, Carson pledged to no longer talk about gay
rights, a promise he's finding difficult to keep.