(CNN) The nation's largest advocacy organization for LGBT rights accused Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee of "campaigning on hate" by defending the military's ban on transgender people.

Huckabee said at the first Republican debate Thursday that the military did not need to adopt society's changing cultural norms related to transgender issues and "is not a social experiment."

"The purpose of the military is to kill people and break things," the former Arkansas governor said during the Fox News debate. "It's not to transform the culture by trying out some ideas that some people think would make us a different country and more diverse. The purpose is to protect America. I'm not sure how paying for transgender surgery for soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines makes our country safer."

JoDee Winterhof, a senior vice president of the Human Rights Campaign , the nation's largest LGBT rights advocacy organization, slammed the remarks in the hours following the prime-time debate.

"By defending the ban on transgender military service in offensive terms, Mike Huckabee proved once again that he's campaigning on hate," Winterhof said.

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