Earlier this week, a New Yorker profile of former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee quoted the Fox News host as saying that there is an “ick factor” to gay relationships, undermining his claims to “respect” gay people. After getting criticized for the comment, Huckabee claimed on his blog that his “use of the phrase ‘ick factor’ was as the established notion from within the Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual, Transgender (GLBT) community.” Huckabee cited University of Chicago Law School professor Dr. Martha Nussbaum as first “applying the phrase to the GLBT community.” But as Igor Volsky noted, Huckabee’s Nussbaum reference was “bizarre,” considering that Nussbaum uses the “ick factor” to argue that opponents of gay political initiatives are driven by their ‘aversion to man-on-man anal sex’ (that’s the ick), not any sophisticated legal or Biblical theories of behavior.” Now, Politico reports that Nussbaum is rejecting Huckabee’s characterization and demanding a “public apology”:
Mr. Huckabee has gotten bad information about my work and has completely turned its meaning upside down, imputing to me a position (that gays and lesbians are disgusting) that I criticize as childish and morally deficient.
He owes me a public apology.