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| Huckabum's country music album flopped. |
He is a contributor to TBN and Fox News. He was also the shortest termed CMA board members. He resigned after protest from members over his controversial remarks of the LGBTQ community.
Huckabee tired to be a part of the music education board. This was short lived when members threatened to quit over his past.
As a former governor of Arkansas, Huckabee though he could play a guitar and string a twang.
Country music has become a little more diversified. It's not the music of right wing bigots like Ted Nugent, Kid Rock and Hank Williams, Jr.
Country music stars are more open to the LGBT community.
Jason Owen, a openly gay country music manager and board member said that hiring Huckabee is a terrible choice for the CMA. Huckabee was pretty bummed about being forced off.
"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," Huckabee's letter of resignation read, which was accepted in a statement by the CMA. The organization, which produces a huge festival in Nashville each summer as well as the televised CMA Awards, has yet to offer further comment on its motivation for appointing him.
The CMA Foundation, which invests in music education programs across the country, made the announcement about Huckabee's appointment late Wednesday afternoon. Soon after, artists, CMA members and fans began voicing their outrage, most notably Jason Owen, co-president of Monument Records and owner of Sandbox Entertainment, who represents well-known clients like Little Big Town and Kacey Musgraves. Owen, who is openly gay, sent a letter to CMA's CEO, Sarah Trahern, and the director of community outreach, Tiffany Kerns, saying the decision to appoint Huckabee meant he would "no longer support the CMA Foundation in any way" and would advise his clients to follow suit.
"[Huckabee] has made it clear that my family is not welcome in his America," Owen wrote. "And the CMA has opened their arms to him, making him feel welcome and relevant. 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. Not to mention how harmful and damaging his deep involvement with the NRA is. What a shameful choice."
Others soon joined the chorus, sending similar emails to Trahern expressing their anger over the choice of Huckabee, who has openly likened gay marriage to incest, has referred to homosexuality as a sin and once escorted former Casey County, Ky., Clerk Kim Davis, who refused marriage licenses to same-sex couples, out of jail (and now one of the very men she denied, David Ermold, is running against her for the job).
Whitney Pastorek, who manages Kristian Bush of the band Sugarland and is also a CMA member, was among those who addressed the organization directly.
"What a terrible disappointment to see [the CMA Foundation's] mission clouded by the decision to align with someone who so frequently engages in the language of racism, sexism, and bigotry," Pastorek wrote, as reported by the Tennessean. Pastorek now takes some solace in the outcome and hopes that the industry can move forward in the aftermath of such controversy.
"What Jason Owen and his team did was brave and inspiring, and I am grateful for every colleague and fan who spoke out alongside them to help set this right," Pastorek tells NPR Music. The development was likewise met with nods of approval from progressive leaders, including Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin.
"Mike Huckabee has staked his entire political career on undermining the rights of LGBTQ people and our families," Griffin tells NPR Music. "His cynical political attacks and discriminatory views do not represent the diversity of country music, and we thank all of the musicians, industry leaders, and fans who spoke out against his appointment to this important role."
Looks like all the corny jokes and snide remarks on Sean "Softball" Hannity's right wing carnival came back to bite his goofy ass.
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