The woman who took Republican presidential candidate hopeful Ben Carson to task over his stance on gays and lesbians has opened up about the experience.
Rose Uscianowski, a 26-year-old medical consultant from Graniteville, New York, told The Staten Island Advance that she wanted to let Carson know that she "was born gay and that being gay is not a choice, it's natural."
"I wanted to make it personal by putting a face to the issue," Uscianowski, who is also a volunteer at the Staten Island Pride Center in Tompkinsville, New York, said in the interview. "I think it's dangerous if you say that being gay is a choice. It creates this idea that being gay is abnormal, and that's what I disagree with."
Uscianowski, who identifies as bisexual, has been the subject of countless media reports since she confronted the Republican candidate after a town hall meeting on Jan. 4, at the Hilton Garden Hotel Inn in Bloomfield, New York. The interaction, which was captured on camera by ABC News, showed Uscianowski, who was wearing a Pride Center T-shirt, asking Carson, "Do you think I chose to be gay?"
Watch the confrontation below, then scroll down to keep reading.
After Carson dismissed her question simply as a "long conversation," Uscianowski fired back and said, "I think you're full of sh*t!"
The question appeared to be a nod to a 2015 CNN interview in which Carson argued that people choose to be gay. The candidate, who later apologized for the remark, has made other inflammatory comments about the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community since then. In November, he said that transgender people should have separate bathrooms, and in a CNN interview this week, he claimed he would consider banning gay and lesbian people from openly serving in the U.S. military, once again, if elected president.
While she insisted the confrontation was not a ploy for publicity, Uscianowski said she was grateful for the national conversation it has inspired.
"If I can bring the issue of gay rights to the GOP debates, that's great," she said.
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