Mike Huckabee resigned from the Country Music Association Foundation board of directors —less than one day after his appointment — after backlash over his anti-gay rights record https://t.co/zKWBzoiwBy pic.twitter.com/Ogi39gj1ZJ

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) March 2, 2018

It’s easy to get the impression that the Country music business is a lot less left wing and social justicey than other parts of the entertainment industry but maybe that’s not the case. Ask Mike Huckabee. He just became the Anthony Scaramucci of the Country Music Association Foundation.

Huck had been on the board of directors less than a day when he had to step down because of his “anti gay rights record.”

“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 wrote in his letter of resignation.

Huckabee didn’t mention the controversy over his stance on gay rights in his letter. But he wrote, “If the industry doesn’t want people of faith or who hold conservative and traditional political views to buy tickets and music, they should be forthcoming and say it.”

A message left by CNN with the foundation seeking comment Friday morning was not immediately returned.

Monument Records co-president Jason Owen (who is married to anoyther man) blasted Huckabee’s traditional Christian beliefs and—of course—his relationship to the NRA.

“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,” Owen wrote in an email obtained by MusicRow. “Not to mention how harmful and damaging his deep involvement with the NRA is. What a shameful choice.”

Own said that his company would refuse to support the Foundation that does charitable work in the area of music education because of Huckabee’s appointment.

Whitney Pastorek, a manager of Sugarland’s Kristian Bush and a CMA member, also expressed concern in an email to CMA executives, casting Huckabee as someone who “engages in language of racism, sexism, and bigotry,” The Tennessean newspaper reported.

CMA board member Joe Galante told USA Today in a statement that Huckabee was elected to the board because he “led an impressive administration while serving the state of Arkansas and his policy experience with education reform is something we are fortunate to be able to learn from.”

Learning from people with different ideas is unacceptable. I could see if they made him resign over his lame attempts at humor on Twitter but this shows that country music is just as corrupted by identity politics as any other part of the entertainment industry.