Before setting off a firestorm in 2008 after endorsing John McCain, John Hagee, the anti-gay, anti-Muslim and anti-Catholic preacher endorsed Mike Huckabee in the Republican primary. After his views statements, including the statement that Hitler was fulfilling God's will became public, McCain had to backtrack and drop Hagee's endorsement.
In 2012 Mike Huckabee looks to elevate Lou Engle to the national spotlight. Who is Lou Engle? The very public supporter of Uganda's anti-gay forces who are in the process of trying to criminilize homosexuality with a sentence that could carry the death penalty. Change.org blogger Michael Jones elaborates:
Here's something Mike Huckabee also has: a best buddy who wants to see LGBT people killed or imprisoned for life in Uganda. And as recently as August 2010, Huckabee praised the work of this friend, a man named Rev. Lou Engle, who has made campaigning for the elimination of LGBT rights a central component of his life's work.
Blogger Waymon Hudson noted that in May of this year, Rev. Lou Engle traveled to Uganda and spoke at a rally where calls for violence toward the LGBT community were fast and furious. Rev. Engle got on stage at this rally, and according to one witness, told 1,300 demonstrators that homosexuality was an evil that deserved to be criminalized.
"[Engle] called upon the government of Uganda to be firm and hold on its righteous stand against the evil. He mentioned that homosexuals have penetrated the educational system and Ugandans must be aware of the evil," the eyewitness said in Hudson's report.