Mike Huckabee Says Gays Haven't Crossed Violence Threshold

One of my favorite Republicans, Mike Huckabee, is kinda putting his foot in it a little. Or a lot. From Towleroad.com:

Said Huckabee: "People who are homosexuals should have every right in terms of their civil rights, to be employed, to do anything they want. But that's not really the issue. I know you talked about it and I think you got into it a little bit early on. But when we're talking about a redefinition of an institution, that's different than individual civil rights. We're never going to convince each other...But here is the difference. Bull Connor was hosing people down in the streets of Alabama. John Lewis got his skull cracked on the Selma bridge."

No doubt Harvey Milk, Matthew Shepard, Teish Cannon, and the thousands of other victims of anti-gay hate crimes would beg to differ, if they could. As Think Progress notes, "Huckabee's lame violence threshold is nothing more than a shoddy attempt to conceal his deep and fundamental homophobia."

This is evidence that "one of my favorite Republicans" is a pretty low bar. Throughout this campaign, I have liked Huckabee's sense of humor and populist bent, but his attitudes on things like this are absolute dealbreakers. When they are just products of his (wrong) religious beliefs, I can almost overlook them and say, "Well, besides that, he's a decent guy."

This, however, is a product of willful ignorance. First of all, the premise is absurd. A civil rights struggle is only validated by the violence of its opposition? By Huckabee's reckoning, gay rights are not as valid as Palestinians'. That's a strange position for a Republican to take.

Of course, even granting his premise, he's wrong. Although not approaching the level and intensity of the black civil rights struggle, gay people have endured violence and murder in their struggle for equality. I didn't think Huckabee was the kind of guy to insist on more of this before he'll recognize the rights of gay Americans.

I grew to like Huckabee during the GOP debates, when he refused to take the bait on immigration, and instead offered an impassioned defense of a scholarship program for children of illegal immigrants. It's too bad his innate sense of fairness is shielded by his devotion to religious dogma. While researching this story, I found that this is nothing new for Huck. How disappointing.

Tommy Christopher co-hosts "Unusable Signal" , on BlogTalkRadio Tues - Thur at 10pm, and Fri, & Sat at 11pm. Click here for the Unusable Signal homepage.