From Bisexuals to Beyoncé: Huckabee's Most Outrageous Quotes of 2015

Come on, Mike. You promised!

In October 2014, ' target='_blank'>EDGE reported that 2016 GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee threatened to leave the Republican party if they continued to support gay rights.

"If the Republicans want to lose guys like me -- and a whole bunch of still God-fearing Bible-believing people -- go ahead and just abdicate on this issue, and why you're at it, go ahead and say abortion doesn't matter, either," said Huckabee. "Because at that point, you lose me. I'm gone, I'll become an independent. I'll start finding people that have guts to stand. I'm tired of this."

As if to compensate, in the months leading up to the announcement of his candidacy on May 6, Huckabee has unleashed a string of outrageous anti-gay statements and claims that have run the gamut from ridiculous to incredulous.

In honor of candidate Huckabee's campaign, EDGE compiled a list of the top six anti-gay quotes from the governor turned pundit turned Chik-Fil-A cheerleader.

February 2015
Huckabee Calls Anti-Gay Hate Speech 'Christian Love'

In an event hosted by Huckabee in Little Rock called "America from Ordinary to Extraordinary, he lauded the efforts of anti-gay hate groups and called their actions and rhetoric acts of love.

"In today's world, what real love means is interpreted as hate and if you tell someone what the truth is, you'll be accused of hate speech," Huckabee said. "Craziest thing I've ever heard is some of the Christian groups that I know, and I know the people involved in them, are called hate groups. Really? What makes them a hate group? Because they said something someone didn't agree with. What is it that causes us to say we should celebrate diversity, which means you should celebrate uniformity with what the culturally correct have decided you should believe. This is an insidious threat to our country."

April 2015
Huckabee Warns Gay Rights Will Outlaw Christianity

In a conference call with conservative pastors organized by the anti-gay hate group Family Research Council, Huckabee claimed that marriage equality will lead to the "criminalization of Christianity."

"Christian convictions are under attack as never before," Huckabee said in the call. "Not just in our lifetime, but ever before in the history of this great nation. We are moving rapidly towards the criminalization of Christianity."

April 2015
Huckabee Calls Obama's Phonecall to Michael Sam a Sign of America's 'Utter Collapse'

During a "family leadership regional summit" held in Iowa, Huckabee appealed to his anti-gay evangelical base by criticizing President Obama's decision to make a phonecall to Michael Sam, the first openly gay player in the National Football League.

"The values that so many of us hold dear are values that are under assault today," Huckabee said. "I never believed that in such a short period of time, the culture in America would go into utter collapse. If you told me just a few years ago that one day the President of the United States would use his precious time in the Oval Office to call people up simply to congratulate them for being gay, I would say, 'No, surely he'll call a veteran and thank them for their service, for losing a limb or a leg.' But even when Chris Kyle was murdered, his widow didn't get a phone call, but a gay football player who came out did."

February 2015
Huckabee Compares being gay to Alcohol, Profanity and Jews Eating Bacon and Shrimp

In an appearance on CNN's "State of the Union" program, Huckabee said homosexuality was a lifestyle like drinking and swearing and said expecting Christians to accept same-sex marriage was like forcing Jews to break kosher dietary rules.

"I don't chuck people out of my circle or out of my life because they have a different point of view. I don't drink alcohol, but, gosh, a lot of my friends, maybe most of them, do. You know, I don't use profanity, but, believe me, I have got a lot of friends who do,"

In the same interview he also claimed that forcing people of faith to accept gay marriage as policy is on par with telling Jews that they must serve "bacon-wrapped shrimp in their deli." That dish would run afoul of kosher rules in the same way Huckabee sees asking Christians to accept same-sex marriages.

January 2015
Huckabee Slams Obama for Letting Daughters Listen to Beyonc�

OK, this statement wasn't technically anti-gay, but a slap in the face to gays nonetheless. In a People Magazine interview, Huckabee described Grammy Award-winning artist Beyonc� as "mental poison," and criticized the President and First Lady for letting their daughters listen to her music.

"I don't understand how on one hand they can be such doting parents and so careful about the intake of everything - how much broccoli they eat and where they go to school ... and yet they don't see anything that might not be suitable," Huckabee told People, further claiming that Beyonc�'s lyrics and music video choreography was "best left for the privacy of her bedroom."

January 2015
Huckabee Says Gay Marriage Should be Banned Because Bisexuals Want Two Spouses

In his book "God, Guns, Grits and Gravy," Huckabee made a case against same-sex marriage by claiming that it would open the doors to bisexual polygamy.

"Shouldn't a bisexual be able to have both a male and female spouse?" Huckabee writes. "Wouldn't restricting that person access to both genders be denying the bisexual his or her marriage 'equality?'"

BONUS TRACK

' target='_blank'>January 2015
Huckabee Says the Duggars are Being Bullied by 'Snotty Sophisticates' with 'hellions' for Children

In his book "God, Guns, Grits and Gravy," Huckabee claims that the Duggar family of the TLC reality show "19 Kids and Counting" who have a history of campaigning for anti-gay candidates and causes "have endured relentless and vicious ridicule from the snobby and snotty sophisticates."

Of the purported "bullies," Huckabee claims that they "exemplify their own jealousy of how well-behaved the Duggar kids are compared to the little hellions and yuppie larvae created by the critics of the Duggars."