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   From: alarson@aol.com   
      
   On the same day Ben Carson launched an exploratory committee to   
   run for president in 2016, he also began making controversial   
   comments that could follow him into the campaign.   
      
   In an interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo, Carson, a retired   
   neurosurgeon and 2016 GOP hopeful, said that prison inmates   
   provided proof that being gay is a choice.   
      
   "Absolutely," he said when Cuomo asked if he thought being gay   
   was a choice, adding:   
      
   "A lot of people who go into prison, go into prison straight and   
   when they come out, they're gay. So, did something happen while   
   they were in there? Ask yourself that question."   
   Carson said this "thwarts" the idea that being gay is not a   
   choice, which is the prevailing opinion of the medical   
   community. The American Psychological Association writes, "most   
   people experience little or no sense of choice about their   
   sexual orientation."   
      
   Carson said that it was beside the point though, because what   
   gay couples really want is the same rights that straight couples   
   have. He said the word "marriage" need not apply.   
      
   "Why do gay people want to get married?" Carson asked Cuomo.   
   "Because they want to have various rights -- property rights,   
   visitation rights. Why can't any two human beings, I don't care   
   what their sexual orientation is, why can't they have the legal   
   right to do those things? That does not require changing the   
   definition of marriage."   
      
   He said these rights and restrictions on same-sex marriage   
   should be decided by individual states.   
      
   Carson is no stranger to controversial comments, particularly   
   regarding his views on gay people and same-sex marriage. In   
   2013, he compared gay marriage to pedophilia and bestiality   
   during an interview with Sean Hannity, Politico reported.   
      
   "It's a well-established, fundamental pillar of society and no   
   group, be they gays, be they NAMBLA, be they people who believe   
   in bestiality," he said at the time. "It doesn't matter what   
   they are. They don't get to change the definition."   
      
   Outrage over the comments led him to withdraw from giving a   
   commencement speech at Johns Hopkins University   
      
   At the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2014, he   
   echoed that remark, saying "gay people should have the same   
   rights as everyone else...But they don't get extra rights. They   
   don't get to redefine marriage."   
      
   Carson formally launched his exploratory committee for the 2016   
   elections on Wednesday.   
      
   He gained political prominence after criticizing President   
   Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act in 2013, and comparing it to   
   slavery and the Nazi government.   
      
   "I see myself as a member of 'we the people,'" he explained to   
   The Associated Press in a past interview. "I see myself as a   
   logical American who has common sense, and I think that's going   
   to resonate with a lot of Americans, regardless of their   
   political party or where they fit in that party."   
      
   http://www.syracuse.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/03/ben_carson_pr   
   isons_being_gay_choice.html   
      
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