Fox News presenter, former governor of Arkansas, and 2008 Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee warned on Monday that “every fear” over same-sex marriage has come true, including “television commercials portraying same-sex couples”.

Right Wing Watch reports that Huckabee made the comments while on the radio promoting a campaign reaching out to young Americans who oppose marriage equality and abortion.

Huckabee said love was “not the issue” in same-sex marriage. He went on to suggest marriage equality damaged rights, and would “force businesses” to change their behaviour – possibly citing concern over cases such as Arlene’s Flowers, which has come under fire for refusing to provide flowers to a gay couple for their wedding.

Speaking on the radio with Concerned Women for America (CWA) head Penny Nance on Monday, Huckabee said:-

The very thing that many people and I know CWA was a part of this, saying, this is why the legalization of same-sex marriage is going to be a much bigger issue than just saying we let people love whoever they want to love, that’s not the issue. Will it force businesses — of course everyone will say, oh no people still have their rights, but they don’t. And every fear that people had has in fact come true, that this is being forced in textbooks on how marriage is depicted, we’re now even seeing television commercials portraying same-sex couples, that’s something I guess I didn’t expect to see anytime soon.

Earlier this year Concerned Women for America claimed that the CEO of Starbucks had become “extreme and intolerant” in its support for marriage equality, and claimed that he was actively refusing the custom of “pro-marriage supporters”.

They have previously claimed that, by producing cards aimed at same-sex couples, Hallmark Cards is “jeopardizing its brand as a family-friendly company”.

In 2012 Huckabee suggested a rejection of “natural law”, and “natural family of a father and mother”, were the reasons for the school massacre at Newtown, Connecticut.

He has previously stated that he opposes equal marriage partly because of the “ick factor”,