Huckabee: Portrayal of same sex couples on TV is 'being forced'

Appearing on a radio broadcast Monday, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) expressed shock that LGBT couples are popping up in TV commercials, saying it's "something I guess I didn't expect to see anytime soon" and insisting that equality is somehow "being forced" upon Americans.

Huckabee was speaking to the Christian fundamentalist organization Concerned Women for America (CWA), which recently launched a new campaign called "Willing 2 Stand" aimed at boosting the numbers of anti-LGBT youth in religious communities by convincing them to stand strong when informed that their exclusionary views are bigoted and hurtful.

"This is why the legalization of same sex marriage is going to be a much bigger issue than just saying, we let people love whoever they want to love," Huckabee insisted. "That’s not the issue... Of course everyone will say, 'Oh no, people still have their rights,' but they don’t. And every fear that people had has in fact come true -- that this is being forced, in textbooks on how marriage is depicted. We’re now even seeing television commercials portraying same sex couples. That’s something I guess I didn’t expect to see anytime soon."

The former Republican presidential candidate has long described homosexuality as a "choice," which he believes leads to an "aberrant, unnatural and sinful lifestyle." Huckabee has also compared marriage equality to sanctioning incest, polygamy and drug use, and vehemently opposed allowing LGBT people to adopt children.

RNC chairman Reince Priebus said in March that Huckabee is the shining example of how Republicans should conduct themselves with regards to LGBT rights, telling Fox News that he's "a model for a lot of people in our party."

“I always tell people, listen to Governor Mike Huckabee," Preibus said. "I don’t know anyone that talks about [LGBT rights] any better."

This audio is from Concerned Women for America, snipped by Right Wing Watch on june 11, 2013.

This video is from "Willing 2 Stand," published to YouTube on May 7, 2013.

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[Image via Gage Skidmore, Creative Commons licensed]