Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has entered the top tier of the GOP presidential primary by appealing to the party's evangelical base. (Image courtesy of GQ)

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who has enjoyed a surge in recent Republican primary polls, says in an interview with GQ that gay marriage is a threat to civilization itself and civil unions are not an acceptable alternative. "You have to have a basic family structure. There’s never been a civilization that has rewritten what marriage and family means and survived," said Huckabee, who has pulled into the lead in some Iowa polls and second place nationally.

"So there is a sense in which, you know, it’s one thing to say if people want to live a different way, that’s their business. But when you want to redefine what family means or what marriage means, then that’s an issue that should require some serious and significant debate in the public square."

Huckabee scoffed at the claim that gay couples need legal recognition to visit one another in hospitals and nursing homes, saying that was achievable through power of attorney documents.

He also rejected civil unions for same-sex couples, calling them a "precursor to marriage."

"Once the government says this relationship is in essence similar to or equal to a marriage — we’re not going to call it that, but that’s what it is — and you grant it the same basic rights as marriage, then you’ve effectively done it," said Huckabee, who is an ordained Baptist minister and a growing favorite among the GOP's evangelical base.