PTHTiTTCrinews
controversy swirling around com
ments by U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum,
R-Pa., about gays and the right to
privacy lasted through several media
cycles and appears to he dying out.
That public debate illustrated both the contin
ued second-class status of gays within the political
process hut also the remarkable advances that have
occurred during the past several years. In 1988,
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott’s comparison of
homosexuality to alcoholism and kleptomania
raised barely a ripple in the mainstream media.
It all began with remarks Santorum made in an
interview with The Associated Press that was pub
lished April 22. He said of the Texas sodomy case
now before the U.S. Supreme Court: “If the
Supreme Court says that you have the right to con
sensual [gay] sex within your home, then you have
the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy,
you have the right to incest, you have the right to
adultery. You have the right to anything.”
The Human Rights Campaign led other
community organizations in calling for Santo
rum to step down from his third-ranking Repub
lican leadership position in the Senate.
A
P u n d it s a n d E d it o r ia l s
“It’s obvious that [Santorum] is a moral fascist
and is becoming the voice of the American Tal
iban. He is one of the ever-more-strident family
fanatics. What he misses, among many other
things, is that society exists for the individual;
the individual does not exist for society.”
— Longtime gay activist Frank Kameny
“John E Kennedy drew a distinction between his
public role as president of a diverse country and
his own private religious convictions; Santorum
A n I nclusive M an
Senator compares homosexuality with bigamy, polygamy, incest
and adultery by B ob R oeh r
Democratic presidential candidates Howard
Dean, John Kerry and Joe Lieberman were
among those taking the lead in condemning the
remarks. However, a San Francisco television
station reported that an April 23 HRC gathering
with candidate John Edwards was closed to the
press at the demand of the candidate because he
did not want to talk about Santorum.
Four moderate Republican senators publicly
urged their colleague to apologize for his
remarks, though others reportedly urged that
action behind the scenes. Majority Leader Bill
Frist issued a statement saying Santorum was “a
voice for inclusion and compassion...to suggest
otherwise is just politics.”
“Santorum is usually a good politician about
meeting constituents and listening to concerns,
but he never gave us anything, or if he did, it was
certainly scraps,” said David Greer, who was pres
ident of Pennsylvania’s Log Cabin Republicans Rick Santorum (left, with Trent Lott) is the
chapter for several years. He believes individual third-ranking Republican in the U .S . Senate
gay Republicans have supported Santorum but
says the organization never gave him any money.
HRC spokesman David Smith was not sur
For three days, White House press secretary
prised and only mildly disappointed by the limited
Ari Fleischer fended off queries on Santorum
condemnation of Santorum by fellow Republicans.
and the sodomy case behind those comments.
He said, “You can look at the silence in a good
Finally, he asserted April 25 that the senator was
way,” as Republicans not being comfortable with
“an inclusive man.”
Santorum’s remarks but unwilling to alienate their
The statement was a finessing of intense politi conservative base by speaking out against them.
cal pressure from those on the social right associat
And when Republicans did speak, they gener
ed with James Dobson and Focus on the Family to
ally defended the man, not his ideas. J H
support both Santorum and “the family," and the
pressure for “inclusion” that came from Log Cabin
B ob ROEHR is a free-lance reporter based m
Republicans and the broader American public.
Washington, D .C .
explicidy argues the opposite. How can we have
any hope of creating a democratic government in
Iraq free from domination by repressive religion if
we cannot free our own laws of official faith-based
biases inflicted on our fellow citizens?”
— Gay conservative Andrew Sullivan
“America does not need a sex police. It’s a waste
of time and resources."
— Conservative commentator Bill O ’Reilly
one side are defenders of the 'healthy, stable, tra
ditional family.’ On the other are practitioners of
what he calls the 'right-to-privacy lifestyle.’ [He is]
advocating the right of states to sic their police on
two consenting adults in their own homes. You
don’t have to be pro-‘anything’ to know what’s
wrong with this.... The fact that many people dis
approve of it does not justify sending the police to
knock down doors and barge into bedrooms.”
— The Washington Post
“The legal framework matters. Mr. Santorum is
espousing a worldview, and a disturbing one. On
“The Ozzie and Harriet world he yearns for
doesn’t exist anymore, if it ever did. Repeated
We Treat You Like "Family"!
divorce and remarriage, along with the public
acknowledgment of gay relationships once kept
in the shadows, have radically changed the
composition of many families.”
—The Baltimore Sun
“He does, I think, raise a profound question that
he ought to answer himself: If you have the ori
entation of a moron, do you still have to talk
like one?"
— Columnist Richard Cohen,
taking on Santorum’s religious parallel of
“love the sinner, hate the sin”
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