The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the
nation's largest LGBT rights advocate, on Saturday condemned Mike
Huckabee's comments on an openly gay nominee to lead the U.S. Army.
Huckabee, who is vying to become the
Republican nominee for president, said in a Facebok post that
President Barack Obama's pick of Eric Fanning was more about
pandering to the LGBT community than anything else.
“Homosexuality is not a job
qualification,” Huckabee said, adding that the military was not
about conducting “social experiments.”
(Related: Mike
Huckabee criticizes Obama's nomination of gay man to lead the Army.)
If approved by the Senate, Fanning, 47,
would become the first openly gay secretary of a military branch.
JoDee Winterhof, senior vice president
of policy and political affairs at HRC, responded in a blog post,
saying that Huckabee's bigotry makes him unfit to be president.
“Mike Huckabee is so blinded by his
own bigotry that he would oppose someone with two decades of national
security experience just because of his sexual orientation,”
Winterhof wrote. “Mike Huckabee's naked prejudice and willingness
to smear an experienced public servant shows he is unfit to be
commander in chief. Other candidates should make immediately clear
they won't tolerate Huckabee's bigotry and that they will make these
decisions based on Eric Fanning's experience and on the merits.”