Clovis, who like many in the Trump administration has no qualifications for his post and a long history of saying and writing stupid things as a far-right talk show host, has described “LGBT behavior” as a “choice” that, if protected, could lead to the government also protecting pedophilia.
Here’s the transcript, taken from footage of a campaign stop during Clovis’s failed Republican Iowa senate nomination in 2014, via CNN:
“Someone who engages in LGBT behavior — I don’t know what the science is on this, I think it’s still out — but as far as we know, LGBT behavior is a choice they make, Clovis says in a video obtained by CNN’s KFile. “So we’re being asked to provide Constitutional protections for behavior, a choice in behavior as opposed to a primary characteristic.”
“There’s no equivalency there between the civil rights issue associated between those protected classes and the civil rights of someone who engages in a particular behavior,” continues Clovis. “Follow the logic, if you engage in a particular behavior, what also becomes protected? If we protect LGBT behavior, what other behaviors are we going to protect? Are we going to protect pedophilia? Are we going to protect polyamorous marriage relationships? Are we going to protect people who have fetishes? What’s the logical extension of this? It can’t be that we’re going to protect LGBT and then we’ll pull up the ladder. That’s not going to happen, it defies logic. We’re not thinking the consequences of these decisions through.”
“I don’t think it’s extreme,” said Clovis, when someone rightly pointed out that his statements were offensive. “I think it’s a logical extension of thought. And if you cannot follow the logic then you’re denying you’re in denial.”
A USDA spokeswoman responded to CNN’s request for comment by saying, “The Supreme Court settled the issue in 2015.”
