Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson on Saturday dismissed the U.S. military’s July decision to lift the ban on transgender troops and instead backed the the military’s old “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.
“I do not appreciate using our military as a laboratory for social experimentation,” Carson said at a town hall with the Concerned Veterans for America in Iowa. “When our men and women are out there fighting the enemy, the last thing that we need to be doing is saying, ‘What would it be like if we introduced several transgender people into this platoon?’ Give me a break. Deal with the transgender thing somewhere else.”
He then added that he preferred the military’s old policy that prohibited gay individuals from serving openly.
“I like the old ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ philosophy. Why do you have to go around flaunting your sexuality?” Carson asked. “It’s not necessary. You don’t need to talk about that. We need to talk about how we eliminate the enemy.”
Carson also indicated that he supports the Defense Secretary’s recent decision to open all combat roles to women, but said he worried the military could lower its standards.
“I’m very frightened when it comes to certain job descriptions if we lower the standards. We have to have standards. And if women can meet those standards, and they want to meet those standards, and they want to do that, then I would never deny them,” he said. “But what woman wants to go out on the front line in the dirt and the slime fighting?”
Watch Carson’s remarks via CBS:
