Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum on
Monday attended an event sponsored by an Iowa group opposed to
marriage equality.
The Family Leadership Summit held at
the Cedar Falls High School was sponsored by the Cedar Valley
Patriots for Christ and The Family Leader, which continues to push
lawmakers to approve a constitutional amendment limiting marriage to
heterosexual couples six years after the Iowa Supreme Court struck
down the state's restrictive marriage ban as unconstitutional.
More than 100 demonstrators gathered
outside the school to greet the Republican presidential hopefuls.
(Huckabee recently declared his candidacy, while Santorum is expected
to enter the race.)
“The tide is changing,” Eric
Giddens, one of the protesters, told The
Guardian.
“Gay marriage is legal in Iowa now and we want to keep it that
way, so we feel like we can't let our guard down in case these kinds
of folks come in.”
Inside the school, Huckabee told a
similar-sized audience that he welcomed the protesters' freedom of
speech – “I don't fear that people can protest my views” –
and warned that allowing gay couples to marry would lead to the
“criminalization” of the Christian faith.
Huckabee repeated his claim that states
can – and should – ignore the Supreme Court if it strikes down
state bans on gay marriage next month.
“The notion that the Supreme Court is
the supreme branch [of government] is nowhere in the constitution,”
he said. “The Supreme Court is not the supreme being.”
“I didn't come tonight to give you a
speech; I came to sound the alarm,” Huckabee concluded.