Comments against transgender people
Mike Huckabee made earlier this year are gaining traction after the
debut of Caitlyn Jenner on the cover of Vanity Fair.
“Wish that someone told me that when
I was in high school that I could have felt like a woman when it came
time to take showers in PE,” Huckabee told a National Religious
Broadcasters Convention audience. “I'm pretty sure that I would
have found my feminine side and said, 'Coach, I think I'd rather
shower with the girls today.'”
Huckabee, a candidate for the
Republican presidential nomination, also suggested that transgender
people are a threat to society.
“For those who do not think that we
are under threat, simply recognize that the fact that we are now in
city after city watching ordinances say that your 7-year-old
daughter, if she goes into the restroom, cannot be offended, and you
can't be offended, if she's greeted there by a 42-year-old man who
feels more like a woman than he does a man,” he said.
BuzzFeed brought attention to the
comments on Tuesday, a day after the debut of Caitlyn Jenner,
formerly Bruce Jenner.
(Related: Caitlyn
Jenner, formerly Bruce: Vanity
Fair
cover frees me.)
Huckabee has not commented directly on
Jenner's transition.