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‘We Are All Now More Stupid’: Democratic Rep. Blasts Ben Carson Over LGBT Protections Stonewalling (Video)

U.S. Congressman Mike Quigley (D-IL) blasted Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson for his responses Wednesday over guidance removed from HUD’s website, which helped protect LGBT people.
“We are all now more stupid than we were when we came in the room today sir, thank you,” Rep. Quigley concluded (video below) after going around and around with Secretary Carson.
At issue, the guidance that explains how to not discriminate against LGBT people.
Secretary Carson claimed that it was not necessary for the guidance to appear on HUD’s website because the rules against discrimination already exist.
“We’ve gone back and studied it very carefully and concluded that putting that sub-regulatory guidance there actually confused the issue, and made a lot more regulations necessary,” Carson tried to claim.
Carson also tried to double-talk his way out of the congressional oversight, saying “the agreement was that the guidelines would be reviewed, it wasn’t that they would be put back up.”
He repeatedly tried to claim that including guidance on policy and rules “confused the issue,” so rather than re-write the guidance, Dr. Carson supports removing it.
“Regardless of how HUD in D.C. views this, across the country people are being discriminated against, and they’re falling victim to crime and all the other issues that come with being homeless and not being able to get into a shelter,” Congressman Quigley added.
Carson also strangely claimed that after talking to legal “experts throughout government,” his “suspicion” is Rep. Quigley “would probably dislike the sub-regulatory guidance.”
Cryptically, Secretary Carson then said, “the rules that are there allow people to have a non-discriminatory attitude, and that’s what we are trying to achieve.”
Although he did not refer to religion, it seems Carson might have been implying any new guidance would favor conservative Christians over LGBTQ people in the name of “religious freedom.”
Rep. Quigley, exasperated, asked why the guidance couldn’t be posted.
“If you have a rule that tells you what to do, you don’t need more guidance on that,” Sec. Carson falsely claimed.
Carson, who has never previously served n government and has no management experience, is clearly unaware of what guidance offers.
For example, over at the Dept. of Education, Secretary Betsy DeVos tossed years-worth of guidance that helped parents, teachers, and administrators understand ways they could help protect the civil rights of transgender students. Parents especially were furious when those documents were destroyed.
Watch Secretary Carson’s condescending responses to Congressman Quigley, via NBC News:
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