In his new book A More Perfect Union, Carson tackled the issue of altering laws to allow same-sex couples to marry.
“Laws and regulations should be designed to address normal situations while providing special mechanisms for the creation of exceptions in abnormal situations,” Carson writes, according to PinkNews. “Changing the law governing the normal situation in order to accommodate the abnormal situation is like requiring that car seats be designed to accommodate conjoined twins as well as anatomically normal children.
“The more sensible thing would be to require car seats to accommodate typical children and design special car seats for atypical children as needed,” he continues. “This principle can be applied to a host of situations in our nation. For example, most people are heterosexual, and changing the definition of marriage to suit those outside that definition is unnecessarily complicated.”
TJ Helmstetter, Democratic National Committee spokesperson, took Carson’s unusual stance to attack both him and the Republican field for their outdated views on marriage equality.
“Today, Ben Carson has released a great summary of the entire Republican field’s talking points. Thanks Ben Carson!” Helmstetter stated. “Our children’s freedom is threatened by abortion. Immigrant families should be deported. Gays shouldn’t be allowed to marry.
“We’ve heard it all before from the Republican field, and now we’re reading it in Ben Carson’s book,” he continued. “Carson, Trump, Bush, Fiorina, Rubio and the others — it’s no coincidence that they agree on so much. They would shut down the government to defund Planned Parenthood, and they’d all take our country backwards.”
Carson currently polls second for the Republican nomination, behind the ever buoyant Donald Trump.
"Well, darlings... The curtain falls, the spotlight dims, and the rhinestones are packed," wrote former U.S. Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) on X Thursday evening. "From the halls of Congress to the chaos of cable news, what a ride it's been! Was it messy? Always. Glamorous? Occasionally. Honest? I tried... most days."
Hours later, the openly gay ex-congressman -- ever the drama queen to the end -- reported to federal prison to begin serving a seven-year sentence for fraud and identity theft.
Santos was sentenced in April to 87 months in prison after pleading guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. He was ordered to pay $374,000 in restitution and forfeit more than $205,000 he earned through fraud.
A new Pew Research Center survey finds that 59% of LGBTQ U.S. adults under age 50 who have never been married say they want to marry someday -- nearly the same as the 63% of non-LGBTQ adults who do. About 12% of each group say they never want to marry, while more than one-quarter are unsure of their future marriage plans.
By age, younger Americans who have never been married are more eager to wed than older peers, who are less certain and more doubtful about ever marrying.
Among those aged 18 to 29 who have never married, 67% of LGBTQ adults and 73% of non-LGBTQ adults say they want to marry someday. By contrast, just 48% of LGBTQ adults and 49% of non-LGBTQ adults aged 30 to 49 say the same, with nearly one-third in each group unsure.
James Lantz, a 64-year-old gay man with terminal cancer -- known online as the "Angry Gay Grandpa" -- has been ordered to pay $16,575 in damages and a $200 fine after gluing his hand to a railing in the Pennsylvania State Capitol last year to protest anti-transgender lawmakers. The Burlington, Vermont, resident was initially charged with two felonies -- institutional vandalism and criminal mischief -- along with a misdemeanor offense.
Lantz later accepted a plea deal in which prosecutors reduced the vandalism charge to a misdemeanor. In exchange, he pleaded guilty to criminal mischief, agreed to pay restitution for damage to the railing and nearby seating in the State Senate’s visitors’ gallery, and will serve a year on probation, according to PennLive.
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