Mike Huckabee spews anti-transgender bigotry and brags about wanting to creep out showering girls

As reported by Vox’s German Lopez, the far-right website World Net Daily uncovered controversial remarks by Former Arkansas Governor and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, in which Huckabee spewed anti-transgender bigotry and bragged about wanting to creep out showering girls:

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee perpetuated one of the most pervasive myths about transgender people at a convention earlier this year, suggesting that men can abuse trans-friendly laws for voyeurism in women’s bathrooms.

“Now I wish that someone told me that when I was in high school that I could have felt like a woman when it came time to take showers in PE,” Huckabee said in a video resurfaced on YouTube over the weekend by World Net Daily, according to a report by BuzzFeed’s Megan Apper and Andrew Kaczynski. “I’m pretty sure that I would have found my feminine side and said, ‘Coach, I think I’d rather shower with the girls today.'”

Regardless of whether or not Huckabee was joking, I did not find what Huckabee said one bit funny.

First off, Huckabee repeated a common canard that bigots will use to oppose equal rights for transgender people. They believe enacting laws and ordinances prohibiting discrimination against transgender people would lead to men claiming to be women so that they can creep out, or even sexually assault, women in women’s public bathrooms. That’s an absolutely false claim, as, in states where transgender people enjoy legally-protected rights, there has been not one documented instance of sexual assault or voyeurism that has been attributed to laws prohibiting discrimination against transgender people.

Secondly, for Huckabee to claim that he wanted to claim that he’s a woman in order to creep out girls showering in a high school locker room is absolutely disgusting. Huckabee is, in effect, condoning bathroom voyeurism by men against women, which is flatly inappropriate. Huckabee shouldn’t be anywhere near the White House with that kind of attitude towards girls and women.

Oh, by the way, I strongly encourage people to read this article about how to talk about transgender people properly.

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Lindsey Graham makes racist and sexist remarks about what he’d do if elected president

Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who is up for re-election on Tuesday for a full six-year term in the U.S. Senate, made racist and sexist remarks about what he’d do if he were to win the 2016 presidential election at a private dinner attended by men only:

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham‘s remark at a private, all-male dinner about mainly helping white men if he became president was a joke taken out of context, his campaign said Thursday.

But Graham’s opponent, Democratic state Sen. Brad Hutto, said the comment shows he is a typical Republican who isn’t concerned about the middle class, poor, minorities or women.

About 20 seconds of clips of Graham’s speech were provided to The Associated Press, and Graham’s campaign confirmed it was him speaking. CNN first reported the remarks Wednesday, less than a week before the election to decide whether Graham gets a third term in the Senate. He has outspent Hutto by a wide margin and is a big favorite to win in conservative South Carolina.

After using profanity to say the government is messed up, Graham tells the group: “If I get to be president, white men who are in male-only clubs are going to do great in my presidency.”

That did NOT sound like a joke to me, and I thought that Lindsey Graham’s racist, sexist remarks were NOT funny whatsoever. Not only did Graham, a very conservative Republican who is one of the biggest war hawks in either house of Congress, indicate that he intends to run for president two years from now (although he hasn’t formally entered the race for the GOP presidential nomination yet), he also indicated that, if he were to somehow win the presidency (what little chance of that happening is, more than likely, gone due to his remarks), he’d only appoint white men to cabinet positions and other heads of federal agencies. That is a 19th century view of society, and someone with that kind of view of society doesn’t belong in the White House.

FOX News supports domestic violence

The hosts of the FOX News morning program FOX & Friends, think that former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice beating the woman who is now his wife unconscious in an elevator is a laughing matter:

The hosts of Fox & Friends on Monday turned video of NFL player Ray Rice punching his then-girlfriend unconscious in an elevator into a joke, saying that in the future she should “take the stairs.”

[…]

“I think the message is take the stairs,” (Brian Kilmeade) added, as co-host Anna Kooiman giggled.

“The message is, when you’re in an elevator, there’s a camera,” (Steve) Doocy concluded.

There’s a reason why I referred to Rice as a former Baltimore Ravens running back: the Ravens have officially fired Rice from the team due to the fact that he physically assaulted the woman who he is now married to.

I’m not laughing at a professional athlete beating a woman until she was unconscious, and that’s because it’s not funny at all. Domestic violence is a very serious problem in this country, and anyone who thinks that domestic violence is something worth laughing at or making jokes about is effectively defending those who physically abuse wives, fiancés, and girlfriends. Sadly, defending the most disgusting people in society is nothing new for FOX News, which is a far-right propaganda network.