Watch: Rand Paul Scrambles To Fix His Claim That Gay Workers Should Stay Closeted

On Wednesday Rand Paul said LGBT workers should stay in the closet and not bring their private lives to the workplace. After tremendous outrage, now he’s scrambling to reframe his comments.

Speaking with college students in Iowa Wednesday, Rand Paul was asked if it should be legal for LGBT people to be fired for being LGBT. His response, telling LGBT people they should stay in the closet if they don’t want to get fired, drew immediate outrage from HRC and people on social media.

“I think, really, the things you do in your house, just leave those in your house and they wouldn’t have to be a part of the workplace, to tell you the truth,” the lagging GOP presidential candidate said. “I think society is rapidly changing and that if you are gay, there are plenty of places that will hire you,” he offered.

EARLIER: Rand Paul Says It’s OK To Fire LGBT People Because ‘Plenty Of Places’ Will Hire Them (Video)

Today the Kentucky Senator went on CNN to try to fix the damage.

“I don’t think anybody should be fired for being gay,” Paul told Wolf Blitzer. “I do also, though, believe that your personal life should be personal and shouldn’t affect anyone firing you. So, I don’t think the decision whether to hire or fire you should be based on things from your personal life.”

Paul admitted he “might have been able to word it better,” but when asked how he should have worded it, he said, “Exactly how I did.”

He went on to repeat that he doesn’t think anyone should be fired for being gay, but added that there shouldn’t be a federal law outlawing it.

“These things should be decided at the state level,” Paul, who says he is a libertarian, insisted.

“I don’t think the federal government should weigh in on things like this,” Paul continued. “It should be decided state-by-state, and if states want to make that an action for cause, that’s fine.”

EARLIER: Rand Paul Slammed For Telling LGBT Workers To Stay In The Closet To Avoid Being Fired

Paul also impugned the honesty of LGBT workers, saying, “I do worry about a workplace where, every sort of classification of person then becomes something where, ‘Oh, I lost my job, maybe then I’ll sue because I also happen to be gay.'”

“It’s always ‘he said, she said,'” Paul claimed. “Nobody puts signs up saying that. If they do, then I think you would have an action or a cause for action. What I’m saying is I think it should not enter into the workplace in the sense that you shouldn’t be hired or fired because you’re gay.”

Paul says he believes non-discrimination laws should be created – or not – at the state and local level, but it’s clear that in states where LGBT people are most likely to be discriminated against, they also would not and have not passed laws protecting LGBT workers. There also has been a rash of conservative states passing or trying to pass laws that would nullify local non-discrimination ordinances, most recently, Texas.

Anti-LGBT discrimination is especially pervasive in the southern states, which also have the highest proportion of same-sex couples raising children.

“Geographically, same-sex couples are most likely to have children in many of the most socially conservative parts of the country,” the Williams Institute reports, noting that “same-sex parenting is more common in the South, where more than 26% of same-sex couples are raising children, than in more socially liberal regions like New England (24%) or the Pacific states (21%).”

 

Image: Screenshot via CNN/Twitter
Hat tip: Chris Johnson at The Washington Blade