Conservative commentator Pat Buchanan has compared gay rights activists to former Cuban President Fidel Castro.

Castro assumed military and political power after leading the Cuban Revolution against Cuban President Fulgencio Batista. Under Castro's rule, Cuba was transformed into a socialist state with close ties to the Soviet Union.

In a Townhall.com op-ed, Buchanan lamented the “long retreat in the culture war.”

“Soon, same-sex marriages will likely be declared a right hidden in the Constitution and entitled to all the privileges and benefits accorded traditional marriages. Next, those who refuse to provide services to same-sex weddings will become the criminals,” Buchanan wrote.

“Thus does biblical truth become bigotry in Obama's America.”

“And the process has been steadily proceeding for generations.”

“First comes a call for tolerance for those who believe and behave differently. Then comes a plea for acceptance. Next comes a demand for codifying in law a right to engage in actions formerly regarded as debased or criminal. Finally comes a demand to punish any and all who persist in their public conduct or their private business in defying the new moral order.”

“And so it goes with revolutions. On the assumption of power, revolutionaries become more intolerant than those they dispossessed.”

“The French Revolution was many times more terrible than the Bourbon monarchy. The Russian Revolution made the Romanovs look benign. Fidel Castro's criminality exceeded anything dreamt of by Fulgencio Batista.”