Barney Frank Gets Personal In Response To Ben Carson's Ridiculous Comments That Being Gay Is A Choice

Barney Frank became a spokesman for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality as the country's first congressman to voluntarily come out, and in a conversation with HuffPost Live, Frank had strong words about comments by Ben Carson, who recently stated on CNN that being gay is "absolutely" a choice.

The former Massachusetts Congressman, who has a new memoir out titled Frank, referenced troublesome mentalities like Ben Carson's as he described to host Alyona Minkovski the struggle of being a young teen who knew he wanted to go into politics but also knew "people hated gay people."

"For those like Ben Carson, who just announced that it was a choice, I do want to say at 14 I did not choose to be a member of what I thought was the most hated group in America. That was not a typical teenage reaction at the time," Frank said Tuesday.

Presidential hopeful Carson has since apologized for his comments, which cited prison as an example to back his claims. In an e-mailed statement to reporters, Carson wrote: “I do not pretend to know how every individual came to their sexual orientation. I regret that my words to express that concept were hurtful and divisive. For that I apologize unreservedly to all that were offended,” TIME reported.

Watch the full HuffPost Live conversation with Barney Frank here.

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