Being gay is part of a "lifestyle," like drinking alcohol, swearing, or enjoying opera, potential Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said this weekend, in attempting to dodge a question about whether he thinks homosexuality is a choice.
Sunday on CNN's
State of the Union,
host Dana Bash grilled Huckabee about how he can oppose marriage equality when he has friends who are gay -- as he claims in his new book,
God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy.
"People can be my friends who have lifestyles that are not necessarily my lifestyle," said the former Arkansas governor. "I don't shut people out of my circle or out of my life because they have a different point of view. I don't drink alcohol, but gosh -- a lot of my friends, maybe most of them, do. You know, I don't use profanity, but believe me, I've got a lot of friends who do. Some people really like classical music and ballet and opera -- it's not my cup of tea."
Echoing
other statements
he's made recently, Huckabee said the question of what constitutes a marriage has been settled by the Bible, and therefore he doesn't expect to "evolve" in his beliefs, as President Obama did. "It's like asking somebody who's Jewish to start serving bacon-wrapped shrimp in their deli," he said. "We don't want to do that. We're not going to do that. Or asking a Muslim to serve up something that is offensive to him or to have dogs in his backyard. We're so sensitive to make sure we don't offend certain religions, but then we act like Christians can't have the convictions that they've had for over 2,000 years."
He also said there should be room in the nation and the Republican Party for differing views on marriage. "What worries me in this new environment we're in," he said, "it's not just that someone might disagree, they don't want to argue with me, even take another point of view, they want to close someone's business down. Put them really in an economic position of disenfranchisement. I find that very, very disturbing."
Human Rights Campaign president Chad Griffin responded to Huckabee's remarks via Twitter, saying, "Huckabee said that simply BEING LGBT is akin to alcohol abuse. This isn't a policy position. It's hate. Plain and simple." Log Cabin Republicans executive director Gregory Angelo told the
Washington Blade
the politician's comments were "nothing revelatory" and added, "Perhaps the biggest takeaway is Governor Huckabee's admission that there is room in the GOP for differing opinions on marriage equality."
Watch a clip from the interview below.
