Johns Hopkins University is standing by Dr. Ben Carson, even after the neurosurgeon’s anti-gay remarks, Dennis O’Shea, executive director of the university’s media relations said.

“Dr. Carson is a distinguished Johns Hopkins surgeon and scientist chosen to speak at the School of Medicine diploma ceremony because of his extraordinary accomplishments as a neurosurgeon and his many contributions as an advocate for education and children,” O’Shea said in an email to The Huffington Post. “He was not asked to speak because of his personal political, religious or social views. His personal views are just that, his own. When he speaks about them, he is not speaking on behalf of Johns Hopkins.”

Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson told Andrea Mitchell Friday that he is prepared to refrain from speaking at the university’s School of Medicine commencement ceremony, after students and faculty petitioned over comments he made this week that were widely seen as anti-gay.