Mike Huckabee is not going to let the chips fall where they may, especially not Doritos Rainbows -- a special edition of the chips created to raise money for efforts to stop anti-LGBT bullying.
Although manufacturer Frito-Lay has run out of Doritos Rainbows, Huckabee is no less determined to keep them from being purchased, along with all 30 brands in the snackmaker's inventory. The former Arkansas governor, who is once again running for the Republican presidential nomination, claims Frito-Lay has partnered with sex columnist Dan Savage, in teaming up with the It Gets Better Project.
The It Gets Better Project, founded by Savage and his partner, Terry Miller, seeks make the world a better place for LGBT young people. Savage is no longer actively affiliated with it or its series of positive, affirming videos that aim to help LGBT youth turn away from suicide.
But to Huckabee and David Lane of the American Renewal Project, a conservative Christian group, Frito-Lay is pandering to a "gay-friendly agenda," as Time reports, and they say should cut ties to It Gets Better because Savage "has a history of anti-Christian comments."
In a letter to Frito-Lay, Huckabee wrote:
"It is beyond me to understand how a responsible corporation would think that partnering with someone who spews the vicious vitriol that Savage does would be worthy of your corporate contributions."
A copy of the letter was obtained by the far-right blog WND. Huckabee declined to be interviewed by Time, and his campaign did not respond to The Advocate's email seeking comment at press time.
Lane wrote his own letter to more than 100,000 pastors, telling them that "tolerance for Frito-Lay's brazen corporate support of hate speech by Dan Savage -- that were it directed toward Muslim's, would warrant a Justice Department investigation and prosecution -- is chipping away at the very character and soul of the American experience."
Frito-Lay responded, reports Time, defending its partnership with It Gets Better as a valid effort in the fight against bullying: "Some have chosen to misrepresent the positive intent behind Doritos Rainbows," the company said in a statement obtained by Time.
To Lane, though, "This is a battle for the soul of America," as he wrote in his letter. "And religious freedom created America."
Huckabee and Lane have called on Christians to boycott all snacks made by Frito-Lay to protest the project's tenuous connection to Savage, whom they call an "anti-Christian bully."
Click here for a list of the 30 brands made by Frito-Lay, which is a subsidiary of Pepsico, should you wish to respond to the call for a boycott with your own buying choices.