Mike Huckabee: Comparing LGBT rights with civil rights is "an insult to African-Americans"

"That was true discrimination and it was horrible"

Published July 1, 2015 6:15PM (EDT)

Mike Huckabee   (AP/Charlie Neibergall)
Mike Huckabee (AP/Charlie Neibergall)

On Tuesday, GOP presidential candidate and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee said that to equate the fight for LGBT rights with civil rights was to "insult" the black community.

"People are saying, 'Well, churches shouldn't have a tax-exempt status. A Christian school or a university should not have a tax-exempt status, shouldn't be able to let students come on Pell Grants,'" he said on a local Louisiana radio station.

"Because if you equate same-sex marriage to a civil right-- First of all, what an insult to African-Americans, who were hosed in the street, who were beaten, who were truly discriminated against with separate restrooms, separate drinking fountains, separate entrances. That was true discrimination and it was horrible. It's hard to say that the redefinition of marriage is on the same basis as was racial discrimination throughout our history."

He continued: "If you live by the sword you die by the sword, and the same court that said, 'Sure, marriage can be between two men, two women,' ultimately it will mean marriage can be between any group of people who want to have a marriage because you can't deny it once you've opened the door."

Listen to the clip below, courtesy of BuzzFeed:


By Joanna Rothkopf

MORE FROM Joanna Rothkopf


Related Topics ------------------------------------------

2016 Elections Civil Rights Gop Lgbt Lgbt Rights Mike Huckabee Race Video