Dismantling the left's hierarchy of rights.

Carson to Democratic congressman: Transgender rights don't supersede rights of abused women in shelters 

by Andrew Mark Miller

 | March 07, 2020 11:05 AM

Ben Carson argued during a congressional hearing this week that the rights of transgender individuals in federally funded homeless shelters do not override the rights of abused women. 

The secretary of Housing and Urban Development was speaking during a congressional hearing Wednesday, where Democratic Illinois Rep. Mike Quigley challenged HUD’s stance that federally funded homeless shelters have the right to install bathrooms and sleep areas based on biological sex. 

Quigley argued that HUD was essentially saying "that if someone doesn't like someone else in that shelter, for whatever reasons, that you can allow discrimination against those people."

“When you have a single-sex shelter, and it’s there specifically for women who are abused, and then people come in who do not appear to be women and say they’re women, and you have to accept them, does that impinge upon the rights of those women?” Carson responded. “We have a lot of documentation from those women that says it does impinge upon their rights.”

Visibly irritated by Carson’s response, Quigley went on, “You’re the only person I have ever heard bring up that issue. So, you’re saying that because some people think it’s OK to discriminate, that you have to go along with that, too.”

“That’s not what I’m saying at all,” Carson replied.

Quigley continued to press Carson and accuse him of making the argument that discrimination is acceptable as long as you “don’t like” someone.

“No, what I’m saying is we have to take everybody’s feelings into consideration,” the secretary responded. “You can’t just select a group and say that their feelings trump everyone else’s groups.”

“No one’s rights get to obliterate everybody else’s,” Carson added.