Ben Carson, Donald Trump’s secretary of housing and urban development (Hud), made a transphobic comment this week during a meeting with federal employees in San Francisco, the Washington Post reported.
At least one person at the meeting walked out in protest, staffers told the Washington Post.
Carson said he was concerned about “big, hairy men” trying to infiltrate women’s homeless shelters, a remark that multiple people at the meeting interpreted as an attack on trans women, according to the Post.
Fearmongering over the effects of giving trans women access to homeless shelters and domestic violence shelters is a common trope among anti-trans activists. In May, Hud proposed a new rule that would gut protections for homeless trans people at federally funded homeless shelters.
“Rescinding this rule is a shameful decision that will result in trans shelter-seekers being forced on the streets,” Julián Castro, who was the Hud secretary under Barack Obama and is now a Democratic presidential candidate, tweeted at the time.
“A lack of stable housing fuels the violence and abuse that takes the lives of many transgender people of color across the country,” Mara Keisling, the executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, said in a statement in May.
Multiple academic studies have confirmed that trans-inclusive policies do not endanger cis people. At the same time, there is substantial evidence that trans people, particularly women of color, are victimized at disproportionately high rates and face abusive treatment in public places.
During his San Francisco visit, Carson also complained that society no longer seemed to know the difference between men and women, staffers told the Washington Post.
“The secretary does not use derogatory language to refer to transgendered individuals. Any reporting to the contrary is false,” a Hud spokesperson told the Washington Post.
Carson has a history of making transphobic comments in public, and has “repeatedly mocked transgender people in internal meetings in Washington”, the Post reported, citing a government official.
