Santorum
Must Explain Remarks
Erie
Times News, April 23, 2003
205 W. 12th Street, Erie, PA 16534
Fax: 814-870-1808
Email: newsdesk@timesnews.com
His words seem to speak for themselves. In an interview
with the Associated Press on a high court case challenging the
constitutionality of a Texas law against sodomy, Santorum said:
“If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to
consensual (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.”
Where in the world did this come from? What the Supreme
Court considers is whether the government has any business intruding on what
goes on behind closed doors in America’s adult bedrooms. The court is
hopefully—unlike the Texas law—preparing to say government does not.
Although Santorum has not responded to the predictable
firestorm his remarks sparked, spokeswoman Erica Clayton Wright said the quote
was accurate “only in the context related specifically to the right to
privacy in the Supreme Court case.” The senator, she said, “has no problem
with gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender individuals.”
That is not reassuring. It’s not nearly good enough.
It’s sort of like saying. “I have no problem with Jewish people or blacks.
They’re some of my best friends.”
Maybe that isn’t fair. But neither were Santorum’s
observations. And The Human Rights Campaign, a Washington-based gay rights
organization, joined several Pennsylvania groups—including the
Philadelphia-based Center for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights and the
Pennsylvania Log Cabin Republicans—in calling for Republicans to remove
Santorum from his leadership position as chairman of the Senate Republican
Conference (the party’s No. 3 post).
Former Senate Minority Leader and soon to be Majority
Leader Trent Lott was expelled from his leadership position for extolling
Strom Thurmond’s 1948 segregationist presidential campaign. His pining for
the good old days when segregation ruled the South embarrassed Republicans and
led to his quick and necessary exit.
Santorum’s remarks don’t have the same incendiary
racism effect. But they do call for his fellow senators to at least demand he
clarify and hopefully repudiate these callous words. So far, their silence
speaks volumes.
Conservatives like Sen. Santorum believe in restricting
government power. Then why let police snoop into our bedrooms?
We’d like to hear the senator’s answer.
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