Republican Mike Huckabee: ‘Every fear’ over same-sex marriage has come true

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Fox News presenter, former governor of Arkansas, and 2008 Republican presidential candidate Mike HuckabeeĀ warned on Monday that “every fear” over same-sex marriage has come true, including “television commercials portraying same-sex couples”.

Right Wing Watch reports that Huckabee made the comments while on the radio promoting a campaign reaching out to young Americans who oppose marriage equality and abortion.

HuckabeeĀ said love was “not the issue” in same-sex marriage. He went on to suggest marriage equality damaged rights, and would “force businesses” to change their behaviour – possibly citing concern over cases such asĀ Arleneā€™s Flowers, which has come under fire for refusing to provide flowers to a gay couple for their wedding.

Speaking on the radio with Concerned Women for America (CWA) head Penny Nance on Monday, Huckabee said:-

The very thing that many people and I know CWA was a part of this, saying, 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, thatā€™s not the issue. Will it force businesses ā€” of course everyone will say, oh no people still have their rights, but they donā€™t. And every fear that people had has in fact come true, that this is being forced in textbooks on how marriage is depicted, weā€™re now even seeing television commercials portraying same-sex couples, thatā€™s something I guess I didnā€™t expect to see anytime soon.

Earlier this yearĀ Concerned Women for America claimed that the CEO of Starbucks had become ā€œextreme and intolerantā€ in its support for marriage equality, and claimed that he was actively refusing the custom of ā€œpro-marriage supportersā€.

They have previously claimed that, by producing cards aimed at same-sex couples, Hallmark Cards is “jeopardizing its brand as a family-friendly company”.

In 2012 Huckabee suggestedĀ a rejection of ā€œnatural lawā€, and ā€œnatural family of a father and motherā€, were the reasons for the school massacre at Newtown, Connecticut.

He hasĀ previously stated that he opposes equal marriage partly because of theĀ ā€œick factorā€,