from The Advocate:
Former Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee dropped by Jon Stewart’s Daily Show Tuesday to promote his new book, Do the Right Thing: Inside the Movement That’s Bringing Common Sense Back to America.
In the book Huckabee states that all people are created equal. But when talk turned to the subject of gay marriage, Stewart took the conservative politician to task by saying that for gay people, Huckabee believes that “it is corrosive to society to allow them to have the privileges that all humans enjoy.”
Huckabee fell back on the argument he’s long used to rationalize being opposed to gay marriage -- that to redefine marriage to include same-sex couples would be to require opening marriage to include practitioners of polygamy, among other “alternative lifestyles.”
Stewart countered by offering a look back at how this country used to define marriage -- with laws that didn’t allow mixed race couples to marry -- and suggesting that under Huckabee’s rationale, “what if we make it that Hispanics can’t vote.”
Predictably, Huckabee countered by saying he didn’t think that was a good idea, but went on to say, “There is a big difference between a person being black and a person practicing a lifestyle and engaging in a marital relationship that ...”
“This gets to the crux of it,” Stewart interrupted, saying the difference in opinion is “between what you believe gay people are and what I do.”
“I'll tell you this,” he continued. “Religion is far more of a choice than homosexuality. And the protections that we have, for religion -- we protect religion -- and talk about a lifestyle choice! That is absolutely a choice. Gay people don't choose to be gay.”
Though Huckabee has long tiptoed around this issue, his Daily Show appearance marks the first time the Republican politician has said on television that he believes homosexuality is a choice.
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