Fox News radio host Todd Starnes says that the push for equal rights for LGBT people is making Christians who believe in the “Biblical definition of marriage” into “second-class citizens.”

During a Monday interview with conservative radio host Sandy Rios, the often-outraged Starnes reacted to the possibility that the U.S. Supreme Court could rule in favor of marriage equality.

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“What concerns me, though, Sandy, is the vitriol coming from those who support gay marriage,” Starnes declared. “You know, I’m the kind of person that is more than happy to sit down and talk and debate and listen to what people have to say. I may not agree with it, but at least, you know, it’s their right to have their opinion under our Constitution.”

“And yet, there seems to be this opinion on the other side that says, you know what, you and I don’t deserve the same rights,” he opined. “You know, it’s as if we’re second-class citizens now because we support the traditional, Biblical definition of marriage or perhaps we are pro-life, and that means we’re somehow second-class citizens who don’t deserve to be in the public marketplace of ideas.”

Rios predicted that it would be even “worse than that” if the the court decided to legalize same sex marriage.

“You know there’s going to be punishment,” she said. “There will be tremendous punishment.”

“If gay marriage is embraced by the country, if the Supreme Court goes south this week in its hearings, we are in for –- of course, we’re not going to hear about it until June -– but we are in for persecution like we have never seen it.”

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“Well, it’s already started,” Starnes agreed.

After President Barack Obama announced his support for marriage equality last year, the Fox News radio host had declared that a shift in public opinion was taking place because public schools were “indoctrination centers” for LGBT rights.

Listen to this audio from the American Family Association via Right Wing Watch, broadcast March 25, 2013.

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