Mike Huckabee: Gay Marriage Not a Civil Rights Issue.

Former presidential candidate and extremist Christian Mike Huckabee claimed on the American t.v. show, "The View" that gay marriage is not a civil rights issue. Yet surely he wouldn't say keeping blacks from marrying whites wasn't a civil rights issue?

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee was on The View Tuesday talking about same-sex marriage and declaring that gay rights are not civil rights because gays have not had violence inflicted upon them like Blacks have.

HuckabeeSaid: "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. We're never going to convince each other...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."

James: So in other words gays need to be beaten and killed more often before we will grant them the right to marry??? As for marriage between a man and a women being an institution I'd remind him that segregation was an institution too and yet we ended that "separate but equal" discrimination. Civil unions are "separate but equal" too. And gays haven't faced violence? Clearly he doesn't remember Matthew Shepard who was a gay American university student who lived in the American state of Wyoming and was beaten to death by two homophobes. I live only about an hour away in northern Colorado from where he was killed. They tortured him and crushed his skull with the butt of a gun before tying him to a fence post out in the country side to die. The beating was so severe that the only areas on Shepard's face that were not covered in blood were those where his tears had washed the blood stains away. All because he was gay. Is that not violent enough for you Mike?

And what about the Holocaust, which saw at least 15,000 homosexuals slaughtered along with millions of Jews. Was that not enough violence for you Mike? Or maybe the assassination of gay San Fransisco city supervisor Harvey Milk wasn't violent enough? And what about, The death of Julio Rivera in New York City on July 2, 1990 by two men who beat him with a hammer and stabbed him with a knife because he was gay. Then there was the case of the rape and later murder of Brandon Teena, a transsexual man (1972 – 1993). The events leading to Mr. Teena's death were depicted in the movie Boys Don't Cry. Click here to read more cases of violence against homosexuals. Homosexuals have been around since man first walked the Earth and have faced horrific violence, intimidation and discrimination for eons so it is highly ignorant to say that gays haven't faced similar violence as African-Americans have here in America.

Martin Luther King Jr. Killed 40 Years Ago but the Vision Lives On.

(The Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. standing in an office with a picture of Gandhi, his hero on the wall).

Forty years ago today the great race and civil rights peace activist Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. In that moment there were many in the civil rights movement who feared that Martin's vision of equality amongst all races, religions and ethnic groups would die with him. However, his wave of peaceful, loving energy had planted seeds of hope and change within the hearts of millions just as those same seeds had been planted in his heart from the example of Gandhi.

Just as those seeds grew within his mind, he knew that the fertile seeds of his vision would transfer from one person to the next via the winds of inevitable change to each new generation. He understood the peaceful power of oneness and inter-connection. He understood that with each new generation the seed would grow stronger, the roots would dig deeper and that that the tree would eventually ripen the fruit of his labors and bring about the change needed.

And that tree has indeed grown into a vibrant, strong one that has born much fruit to where today we are on the cusp of the possible election of America's first African-American president.

So while we still have work to do I think that Dr. King would be proud of what we have done with the vision that he left us to fulfill.

May we continue to pass those seeds of equality and tolerance to all those whom we meet along our path.

While we represent different cultural and ethnic branches of humanity may we always remember that we are all still apart of the same vibrant tree.

~Peace to all beings~