Stoned

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee told Joy Behar on The View that he thinks gays and lesbians haven't suffered enough to earn their civil rights.

HUCKABEE: It’s a different set of rights. People who are homosexuals should have every right in terms of their civil rights, to be employed, to do anything they want. But that’s not really the issue. I know you talked about it and I think you got into it a little bit early on. But when we’re talking about a redefinition of an institution, that’s different than individual civil rights.

BEHAR: Well, segregation was an institution, too, in a way. It was right there on the books.

HUCKABEE: But here is the difference. Bull Connor was hosing people down in the streets of Alabama. John Lewis got his skull cracked on the Selma bridge.

So we have to get the shit kicked out of us before we've earned the same rights as everyone else? Tell that to every out kid in high school. Or a couple being harassed by drunken frat boys. Or Matthew Shepard. Or Harvey Milk.

So let me ask Gov. Huckabee a simple question: how many people have to suffer humiliation and physical harm before we reach his threshold of earning our full and equal rights as citizens?

(Cross-posted.)