Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee joked about wishing he could have said he was transgender so he could have showered with the girls during high school.
Republican presidential candidate and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee speaks during the Rick Scott's Economic Growth Summit, June 2, 2015, in Orlando, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Huckabee made the crack in February at the annual National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Nashville, Tennessee, but it was just flagged by BuzzFeed after video was posted online over the weekend.
Huckabee, who had not yet declared his candidacy at the time, was speaking about religious liberty coming "under threat."
“We are now in city after city watching ordinances say that your 7-year-old daughter, if she goes into the restroom, cannot be offended, and you can’t be offended, if she’s greeted there by a 42-year-old man who feels more like a woman than he does a man," Huckabee said.
“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,” he said. “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.’ You’re laughing because it sounds so ridiculous, doesn’t it?”
Huckabee continued: “And yet today we are the ones who are ridiculed and scorned because we point out the obvious. That there's something inherently wrong about forcing little children to be a part of this social experiment. I’m not against anybody. I’d just like for somebody to bring their brain to work some day and not leave it on the bedstand when they show up to govern.”
Huckabee's remarks surfaced one day after the former Bruce Jenner announced she had taken the name "Caitlyn" in debuting her new identity as a woman. Jenner had not yet publicly come out as transgender when Huckabee spoke in February.
A representative for Huckabee's presidential campaign did not immediately return a request for comment.
(H/T: BuzzFeed)
