Former Arkansas Governor and anti-LGBT “Christian Nationalist” Mike Huckabee resigned on Thursday from the Country Music Association Foundation board of directors after criticism from multiple members of the country music industry.
Huckabee held the position for less than a week.
The announcement follows pointed criticism from members of the country music industry, as well as fans — much of it stemming from Huckabee’s stance on LGBT issues.
Jason Owen, co-president of Monument Records and owner at Sandbox Entertainment, called the appointment a “grossly offensive decision” in an email to the association’s CEO Sarah Trahern and CMA Foundation executive Tiffany Kerns.
Owen wrote that due to Huckabee’s election to the CMA Foundation’s board, neither his companies nor anyone they represent would continue to support the foundation.
Owen and his husband, Sam, are fathers to a young son and are expecting twins. Owen said that Huckabee’s stance on the LGBT community “made it clear my family is not welcome in his America.”
Huckabee speaks of the sort of things that would suggest my family is morally beneath his and uses language that has a profoundly negative impact upon young people all across this country,” he added. “Not to mention how harmful and damaging his deep involvement with the NRA is. What a shameful choice.”
The CMA Foundation is the charitable arm of the Country Music Association, devoted to growing and supporting music education programs across the country. Its board consists of 12 members. Huckabee’s inclusion on the board had sparked hundreds of comments from outraged fans on social media.
In Huckabee’s letter of resignation he wrote:
I genuinely regret that some in the industry were so outraged by my appointment that they bullied the CMA and the Foundation with economic threats and vowed to withhold support for the programs for students if I remained.
I’m somewhat flattered to be of such consequence when all I thought I was doing was voluntarily serving on a non-profit board without pay in order to (continue) my decades of advocacy for the arts and especially music.”
Poor bullied Mike Huckabee.
Let’s all make sure to send him our thoughts and prayers.