CLEVELAND _ Retired Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon and former GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson said Tuesday that being transgender "doesn't make any sense" and equated gender identity with ethnicity.
"For someone to wake up and think that they belong to a different sex because they feel different that day is the same as if you woke up and said I'm Afghani today because I saw a movie about that last night and even though my genetics might not indicate that, that's the way I feel, and if you say that I'm not, then you're a racist," Carson told The Hill newspaper in an interview.
Carson, who will address the Republican National Convention here Tuesday night, has veered into controversy on the subject many times before. He apologized last year after telling CNN in an interview that he believed homosexuality is a choice.
The statement is precisely the kind of potential distraction convention organizers would probably like to avoid as they focus on economic issues Tuesday. Republicans adopted a staunchly conservative party platform this month, particularly on social issues, even though Donald Trump himself has taken a more liberal view on gay rights.
Notably, Trump took some Republicans by surprise this year by suggesting in interviews that transgender people should be able to use whatever bathroom they choose.
