HUD Secretary Ben Carson denigrated trans women at the San Francisco office. It didn’t go over well.

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Ben Carson made remarks that disparage transgender and gender non-binary individuals during a visit to the agency’s San Francisco offices.

Carson gave what has been described as a ‘hour long stream of consciousness.” Throughout it, he spoke disapprovingly of the recognition of more than two genders, according to staff who were in the room.

Related: Evangelicals sue for right to deny shelter to homeless transgender people

Carson reportedly stated that “transgender people should get the same rights as everyone else, but they don’t get to change things for everybody else.” The Secretary also referred to rules protecting transgender peoples’ rights in homeless shelters under HUD’s supervision as “special rights,” a phrase he has used repeatedly.

Carson’s visit to San Franscisco was supposed to focus on working to reduce homelessness, but it appears he was preoccupied by the burden of civil rights he is charged with enforcing.

He expressed his belief that HUD shelters should be allowed to turn away trans people in order to maintain “single-sex” segregation, a statement mirrored by rule changes made in 2017 that allows shelters to deny trans and queer homeless people based on religious beliefs.

At least one staff member challenged Carson, telling him that his reminiscence of the past when there were “just women and just men” was factually incorrect and he should rescind that line of thinking. After others in the room appeared in agreement with this staffer, Carson thanked her for speaking and turned to a new topic.

One HUD employee speaking anonymously to The Post described the attendees of the meeting as “shell-shocked” from the comments, explaining that “A lot of us have questioned the department’s rationale on its proposal to strip away the equal access rule. For him to come to San Francisco and say this, it was unbelievable.”

Another staffer described Carson’s remarks as essentially…

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