Ben Carson’s ‘Gay’ Prisons
BY Chris Howard-Woods ON March 16, 2015
Recently, 2016 GOP hopeful Ben Carson made a statement about sexuality in prisons that got us thinking about an issue in America that is sometimes overlooked: sexuality in prison. It might be said that Mr. Carson is already known as a glib fellow, and he has, albeit for political reasons, apologized. But let us review his original, maybe more organic, statement and consider its repercussions. What Carson said was this:
“[A lot] of people who go into prison go into prison straight — and when they come out, they’re gay. So, did something happen while they were in there? Ask yourself that question.”
credit: Gage Skidmore
The implication is that the fact of homosexual rape in prisons somehow proves that sexual orientation is a choice: that starved of heterosexual intimacy, men choose to find pleasure in the company of other men. This sort of rhetorical question isn’t exactly convincing despite the confidence with which Carson presents it.
So, why should we even care about a remarkably blind statement like this? Well, it addresses two states of mind that still persist in America today: one, that homosexuality and other nontraditional orientations are simply caprices of the conscious mind; and two, that sexual violence in prisons can be trivialized by the fact that it is perpetrated on men, and thus, homosexual. This trivialization is implicit in the minds of Mr. Carson and others: in a situation of homosexual rape, there are no ‘real’ victims because the participation of both participants warrants condemnation. Both participants –willing and unwilling– are perpetrators of a sinful act. It’s part of the myth that male victims should be strong enough to fight off an attacker, and therefore are also stigmatized, as “natural victims” by virtue of their own weakness.
Though we don’t accept Carson’s homophobia, reducing incarceration would seem to be a win-win. If we follow this logic to its natural conclusion, there is a very clear way to address his concerns: if people going into prisons come out of them gay, then we should send fewer people into prisons. Then you won’t have a gay problem. The incarceration rate in America is enormously high: that the U.S.’s is the highest in the world seems to be a household fact now. In Carson’s gay-is-a-choice universe, decreasing that rate would therefore decrease the number of gay people in the general public. Carson might be persuaded that there are fewer gay men, while the rest us can live more productive lives, reduce government budgets, and ameliorate conditions in already overcrowded prisons.
From outside the bubble of homophobia, we clearly see that there are victims and there are serious consequences to incarcerated individuals from sexual violence, and from consensual unprotected sex, not the least of which is the transmission of the HIV virus. Thankfully, there are people out there who are trying to make a significant difference in a more sound way. For example, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (CA-43) reintroduced last February the Stop Aids in Prisons Act, which aims to do exactly as it says: take AIDS and sexual violence seriously by “requiring the Federal Bureau of Prisons to develop a comprehensive policy to provide HIV/AIDS prevention, testing, and treatment for inmates in federal prisons.” It would require prisons to test inmates upon intake, request, or exposure to the virus. Water’s proposed bill also ensures that inmates are offered counseling and frequent HIV/AIDS education.
The notion that homosexuality is a choice is archaic, as well as politically cynical. Acknowledging that the ramifications of incarceration go far beyond “generating gays,” is essential to combating the issues of homophobia and incarceration in America.
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