Hopkins Doc Ditches Grad Speech in Gay Marriage Storm

Neurosurgeon and rising conservative star Ben Carson is following through with his offer to step down as commencement speaker at Johns Hopkins medical school, where he works. Students launched a petition after Carson's comments regarding gay marriage, bestiality, and pedophilia. "Given all the national media surrounding my statements as to my belief in traditional marriage, I believe it would be in the best interest of the students for me to voluntarily withdraw," he wrote in a letter to a dean who'd also attacked his comments. Carson added that he didn't want to "distract from the celebratory nature of the day," the Baltimore Sun reports. (More Ben Carson stories.)