Same-sex marriage is like incest: Huckabee

[Every Breaking Wave]

Source

Mike Huckabee, a possible Republican presidential candidate in 2012, says the effort to allow gays and lesbians to marry is comparable to legalizing incest, polygamy and drug use.

Huckabee also told college journalists last week that gay couples should not be permitted to adopt. "Children are not puppies," he said.

Huckabee visited The College of New Jersey in Ewing, N.J., last Wednesday to speak to the Student Government Association. He also was interviewed by a campus news magazine, The Perspective, which published an article on Friday.

Huckabee told the interviewer that not every group's interests deserve to be accommodated, if their lifestyle is outside of what he called "the ideal."

"That would be like saying, well there's there are a lot of people who like to use drugs so let's go ahead and accommodate those who want to use drugs. There are some people who believe in incest, so we should accommodate them. There are people who believe in polygamy, should we accommodate them?" he said, according to a transcript of the interview.

The 2008 presidential hopeful and former Arkansas governor also said that deciding which lifestyles should be accommodated and which ones should not creates a slippery slope.

"Why do you get to choose that two men are OK but one man and three women aren't OK?" he asked.

Huckabee added that his goal isn't to tell others how to live, but that the burden of proving that a gay marriage can be successful rests with the activists in favor of changing the law.

"I don't have to prove that marriage is a man and a woman in a relationship for life," he said. "They have to prove that two men can have an equally definable relationship called marriage, and somehow that that can mean the same thing."

Since the magazine published the interview, Huckabee's remarks have attracted considerable attention on the Web.

In a statement Tuesday, Huckabee said that while he believes what people do in their private lives is their business, "I do not believe we should change the traditional definition of marriage." He also said he thought the college magazine was sensationalizing his "well-known and hardly unusual views of same-sex marriage."

In response to a 1992 questionnaire from The Associated Press, Huckabee, then a Senate candidate in Arkansas, spelled out his opposition to homosexuality, saying it was crucial that the country not "legitimize immorality."

"I feel homosexuality is an aberrant, unnatural, and sinful lifestyle," he wrote, in response to a question about gays in the military.

He also advocated isolating AIDS patients from the general public, saying it was necessary to confine "carriers of this plague."

As governor, Huckabee supported an Arkansas policy that prevented same-sex couples from serving as foster parents. On gay marriage, he said in an interview, "Marriage has historically never meant anything other than a man and a woman. It has never meant two men, two women, a man and his pet, or a man and a whole herd of pets."

 

[Ino-Chan]

Honestly not surprised. How is it AnyThing like incest?

Huckabee added that his goal isn't to tell others how to live, but that the burden of proving that a gay marriage can be successful rests with the activists in favor of changing the law.

"I don't have to prove that marriage is a man and a woman in a relationship for life," he said. "They have to prove that two men can have an equally definable relationship called marriage, and somehow that that can mean the same thing."

What I got from that: "No, I'm not telling you who to marry, so long as it's a different sex."

I can vote in 2012, and I now I have a 100% chance of not voting this old man in.

 

[Satoshi-chan]

Thanks for the article, Matkin. I know who I'm NOT voting for in 2012 now.

 

[FullMetal]

Ok, well this guy is a real bastard.

 

[Falconwing]

LOL! Man, this guy is hilarious. Best comedi- oh, wait... he was serious?

What?!?!

How the hell is gay marriage even close to incest, polygamy, and drug use? They are all totally and completely different!

And, "Children aren't puppies?" WHAT?!?! We already have adoption centers nationwide. what is the difference between a gay couple adopting and a hetero couple adopting? Apparently, the gay couple is like adopting a pet... which makes no bidoofing sense!

Huckabee said that while he believes what people do in their private lives is their business

Oh yeah, we can tell. Because comparing gay marriage to polygamy, incest, and drug usage is totally minding your own business and not in any way offending anyone because of their relationship choices. Way to let people live their lives how they want.

 

[Fig]

Le sigh.

I know a debate will probably happen, but guys? I posted a thread that said "News threads go to Real World" a few days ago

As for Huckabee's comment...pretty much the same argument (eg, consenting adults, etc, etc) that can be made about gay rights can be made about incest and voluntary polygamy, he's right about that part. The only difference is that society has gotten more accepting of gay rights (rightly) while remaining dead-set against incest and polygamy (rightly? wrongly? I'm of two minds on that one!).

It would be another ball game entirely if he had taken the pedophilia/rape/zoophilia/necrophilia approach to the debate. That sort of comparison is monstrous and unfounded. The polygamy/incest one, on the other hand, is something I think we DO need to face, to ask ourselves - what is the difference? And if we cannot find a legitimate reason to ban one and not the other...then why should we just legalize the one?

Don't get me wrong, I'm in favor of gay marriage, and I think incest is messed up. But as many are found of saying...equal rights means equal rights.

The part about gay adoptions and "not puppies" is just plain moronic, though. No, gays are not evil people out to spread their evil gay virus to innocent children. Please try again, mr. Huckabee (or don't)

 

[Fig]

Drug use, presumably is noted as it's the state telling consenting adults what they can and cannot do with their own body.

I guess...

Yeah, kind of was more interested in the rest of Huckabee's list of comparison.

 

[Steven]

Dare I give my speech about stupid conservatives again....?

I've never liked this guy; I can't see myself voting for him in my first presidential election. *sigh*/*oi*

 

[Dorothy]

How is it comparable to drug use, though? Is someone having sex with cocaine when they snort it up their nose? But cocaine can't give consent. So is it being raped, or what?

......Oh, dear lord this is going in my sig.

On topic, I take umbrage with his statement that gays should not be allowed to adopt because "children are not puppies."

By that logic, straight people shouldn't be allowed to adopt either.

 

[Eredar Warlock]

Thanks for the article, Matkin. I know who I'm NOT voting for in 2012 now.

Oh, please. You wouldn't have voted for him anyway. No need for the bluster.

 

[Takoto]

This guy sounds mental, and if I was American I know I wouldn't vote for him.


...people like that really annoy me D:

 

[Mitchman]

If the running Republicans start getting as stupid as this guy, I say ban em from the damn elections.

 

[Izumoshep]

I can see where he is coming from. The ideals or the norms of society are what we base laws on, same-sex marriage is outside of those norms and therefore should not be lawful, using the examples of incest and drug use as examples of why those who a different to the norms are not allowed to do the things they want under law.

If we allow one thing that is outside the norms of society then why should every other norm outside of society not be allowed to be lawful. If you give equal 'rights' to one of those, is it not right to allow equal rights for everything and everyone who is outside of the norm.

If the running Republicans start getting as stupid as this guy, I say ban em from the damn elections.

The idea may be stupid, but the argument is quite valid.

 

[The Big Al]

The problems with incest and polygamy is they cause problems. Children born from incest are more likely to have genetic defects and diseases and polygamy creates a legal nightmare. No such problems exist with homosexuality.

This isn't a surprising statement out of Huckabee and I think he's said this before if not someone else.

 

[Izumoshep]

The problems with incest and polygamy is they cause problems. Children born from incest are more likely to have genetic defects and diseases and polygamy creates a legal nightmare. No such problems exist with homosexuality.

This isn't a surprising statement out of Huckabee and I think he's said this before if not someone else.

The current laws creates legal nightmares, just as homosexuality did last century, laws can be changed if we want to make it less of a legal nightmare, just as laws are being changed for homosexuality.

In incest the percentage of genetic defects depends on the medical history of both people and, according to the Journal of Genetic Counseling, the average risk of birth defects in a child born of first cousins at 1.7–2.8% over an average base risk for non-cousin couples of 3%, or about the same as that of any woman over age 40.

So if homosexuals want equal rights to that of man and woman marriage, you would have to give equal rights to pologamy and incest, as they are all traditionally social taboos, and if homosexuals do not believe in giving equal rights to them, it is just hypocrisy on there part.

 

[Satoshi-chan]

Oh, please. You wouldn't have voted for him anyway. No need for the bluster.

Oh please your own self, I'm not a liberal. I almost voted for McCain, before Palin came along.

 

[derian]

So if homosexuals want equal rights to that of man and woman marriage, you would have to give equal rights to pologamy and incest, as they are all traditionally social taboos, and if homosexuals do not believe in giving equal rights to them, it is just hypocrisy on there part.

The difference is, homosexuality is becoming less and less of a social taboo. It's becoming more and more accepted. Why shouldn't the laws change to reflect that? Incest and polygamy are not getting more accepted, at least as far as I know (though polyamory seems to be somewhat? or at least more known about). There's a large percentage of people that are still against gay marriage, but hell, a lot of people still oppose interracial marriage. Should that be banned too?

 

[Riku]

I don't think he was saying gay marriage is like incest in the sense of being the same in the actual process what he was saying that if you allow one thing which he deems as unmoral then you'd have to allow other unmoral ideas as well. Personally, I would never marry a member of my family, but if other people want to, then that's fine by me, I don't care who you marry as long as it's out of love. If you are going to let 2 men marry (something I agree with) I also believe we should let cousins marry if they love eachother, it's no different really. I'd say marry whoever you want as long as they are over the age of consent, why do we have to put restrictions on who can marry who?

 

[Netto Azure]

Oh well, one reason I supported John McCain's Candidacy for the Republican side.

And such an argument equating Homosexuality to incest is reminiscent of the 1970's and 80's.

 

[Izumoshep]

The difference is, homosexuality is becoming less and less of a social taboo. It's becoming more and more accepted. Why shouldn't the laws change to reflect that? Incest and polygamy are not getting more accepted, at least as far as I know (though polyamory seems to be somewhat? or at least more known about). There's a large percentage of people that are still against gay marriage, but hell, a lot of people still oppose interracial marriage. Should that be banned too?

Just because something is more popular than it was 20 years ago, ain't mean it should become law.

Popular = Lawful
Murder = Popular
Murder = Lawful

a = c
b = a
b = c

Doesn't work like that, popualarity doesn't mean it is or should be lawful.