Trump Chief Scientist Nominee: ‘LGBT Behavior Is a Choice They Make,’ Marriage Could Lead to Pedophilia, Polygamy

‘Defies Logic’ to Protect LGBT People

Sam Clovis, President Donald Trump‘s nominee to be the Chief Scientist at the Dept. of Agriculture, believes that the legalization of same-sex marriage can lead to pedophilia and polygamy, LGBT people should not be granted nondiscrimination protections, and being LGBT is not an innate characteristic but a choice. He is wrong on every point.

“Someone who engages in LGBT behavior — I don’t know what the science is on this, I think it’s still out — but as far as we know, LGBT behavior is a choice they make,” Clovis says wrongly, as CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski and Paul LeBlanc report (video below). “So we’re being asked to provide Constitutional protections for behavior, a choice in behavior as opposed to a primary characteristic.”

Clovis’ arguments are not based in science, and nearly every major medical organization not only around the country but around the world would disagree with his false claims.

“There’s no equivalency there between the civil rights issue associated between those protected classes and the civil rights of someone who engages in a particular behavior,” Clovis adds, in the video from his 2014 Senatorial campaign which he lost to Joni Ernst. “Follow the logic, if you engage in a particular behavior, what also becomes protected? If we protect LGBT behavior, what other behaviors are we going to protect? Are we going to protect pedophilia? Are we going to protect polyamorous marriage relationships? Are we going to protect people who have fetishes? What’s the logical extension of this? It can’t be that we’re going to protect LGBT and then we’ll pull up the ladder. That’s not going to happen, it defies logic. We’re not thinking the consequences of these decisions through.”

Clovis, when questioned, denies his views are “extreme,” but rather, “a logical extension of thought. And if you cannot follow the logic then you’re denying your in denial.”

67-years old, Clovis has failed to win the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate and Iowa State Treasurer, but was picked up by the Trump campaign as a policy advisor. Clovis has also supported Rick Santorum and Rick Perry.

CNN unearthed a good deal more of Clovis’ anti-LGBT beliefs, including that he thinks, as he says in the video, if same-sex couples are allowed to marry ministers and priests will “be accused of hate speech” for reading the Christian bible in church.

He calls same-sex marriage a “deception” by the LGBT community in order to obtain 14th Amendment protections. Clovis tells a young man in a local bakery it would be “dangerous” and “a very slippery slope” if “the people in that lifestyle get those protections.”

In a 2013 blog post Clovis makes similar arguments as he does in the video, but falsely adds that getting rid of traditional marriage is a goal of progressives.

“Dismantling marriage is one of the dual goals of this whole progressive effort,” he writes. “If the gay rights movement can get marriage redefined, then there will be further inroads made to undermine one of the pillars of American strength. Further, as the traditional family is about procreation, education, socialization and religious familiarization, that institution serves as a direct threat to the progressive movement’s aim of ridding society of God and coercing behaviors among those ruled in pursuit of the perfection of man through ‘progress.’ One should not be fooled.”

Clovis also believes that LGBT people deserve no federal nondiscrimination protections – and that religious protections must take priority over protecting LGBT civil rights.

“Homosexuality and personal choices about one’s sexual preferences is not at issue. Businesses today have extended support to life partners in a number of ways. It’s just good business if that is what it takes to get the best person for the job,” added Clovis.”On the other hand, businesses and their owners should be able to make decisions about who is employed if hiring people who do not behave in accordance with some deeply held religious belief system is at issue. Just as the government should not force business owners or enterprises to provide contraceptives or morning-after pills because of religious beliefs, the government should not be in charge of hiring practices, either. Religious freedom, perhaps the most fundamental of all protected freedoms, must be free of government interference.”

LGBT groups are speaking out.

“Unfit & unacceptable,” is how Lambda Legal described Clovis, after the CNN story was published. GLAAD posted this tweet:

“Few less qualified to be USDA’s top scientist” says HRC president Chad Griffin.

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This article has been updated to correctly identify the federal agency as the USDA, not the FDA.