Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee
says he disagrees with gay and lesbian couples raising children
because they “are not puppies.”
In a wide-ranging interview with The
Perspective, a publication of the College of New Jersey,
Huckabee also reiterates his opposition to being gay, drawing
parallels to drug use, incest and polygamy.
“You don't go ahead and accommodate
every behavior pattern that is against the ideal,” he said. “That
would be like saying, well, there are a lot of people who like to use
drugs, so let's go ahead and accommodate those who use drugs. There
are some people who believe in incest, so we should accommodate them.
There are people who believe in polygamy, so we should accommodate
them.”
The Fox News commentator and possible
2012 presidential nominee told Katie Couric last November that if you
alter marriage to include gay couples “then there is really no
limit” to how it might be defined and suggested polygamy would soon
follow.
Huckabee also criticized any government
recognition of gay unions, calling civil unions “not necessary.”
“I think there's been a real level of
being disingenuous on the part of the gay and lesbian community with
their goal of civil unions,” he said, referring to efforts by gay
activists to promote marriage equality in states that offer civil
unions, such as New Jersey.
On the issue of gay adoption, Huckabee
sided with an Arkansas law that outlaws unmarried couples from
adopting children in a state that bans gay marriage, effectively
banning adoption by gay couples.
“We should act in the best interest
of the children, not in the seeming interest of the adults,” he
said, then added, “Children are not puppies. This is not a time to
see if we can experiment and find out, how does this work?”
Huckabee, a former Baptist minister,
also does not believe gays should be allowed to serve in the military
and supports a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a
heterosexual union. He is the presidential choice of social
conservatives who attended last year's Value Voters Summit, the
annual conservative meet up sponsored by the Family Research Council
(FRC), an ardent opponent of gay and lesbian rights.