Santorum
Supports Previous Comments on Homosexuals
Scranton Times
Tribune, July 8, 2003
149 Penn Avenue, Scranton, PA 18503
Fax: 717-348-9135
Email: ContactUs@TimesShamrock.com
By Borys Krawczeniuk, Tribune Staff Writer
U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum said Monday he has no regrets about his
controversial remarks equating homosexual acts to bigamy, polygamy and incest
and suggested legalizing homosexual marriage would threaten heterosexual
marriage’s role in “the continuation of civilization.”
Mr. Santorum, R-Penn Hills, also said the June 26 United States Supreme
Court ruling that struck down a Texas law barring sodomy is wrong.
He cited Justice Antonin Scalia’s dissenting opinion, which predicted the
ruling would stop governments from passing bills to regulate morality. He also
defended his April statements to an Associated Press reporter.
“I don’t have any regrets at all about anything I said,” Mr. Santorum
said during an appearance in Scranton. The ruling altered “the people’s
ability to, through their laws, decide what’s moral and what’s not moral
and what should be legal and not legal. And I think (it) fundamentally alters
the landscape of what marriage is going to look like in the future.”
Mr. Santorum said gay marriage should not be legal because marriage’s
purpose is “creating a unique bond for the raising of children and for the
continuation of our, of civilization.
“That’s the unique role of marriage, (it’s) that special relationship
between a man and a woman who have children and to create a nurturing and
positive atmosphere for children. That’s why marriage, in every civilization
known to man, has been a unique and respected institution. And when you talk
about things other than that relationship ... you get away from the
fundamental point of why marriage is sacred.”
David Smith, a spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, a gay-rights group,
said Mr. Santorum implies civilization will end if homosexual marriage is
allowed – which he called ridiculous.
Mr. Santorum, who claims to be a champion of family values, should respect
gay families or risk ending up “on the wrong side of history,” Mr. Smith
said.
“Gay families are living in nearly every county in the country and many
are raising children and those families deserve the same rights and
protections other families have,” Mr. Smith said by telephone from
Washington, D.C. “Religion will still be able to define what is marriage.
Nobody is ever going to change that. But the state should treat all people
equally and fairly and that includes extending civil marriage rights to gay
couples.”
But Michael Geer, president of the Harrisburg-based Pennsylvania Family
Institute, said Mr. Santorum’s latest remarks are right on the mark.
A decade before the January 1973 Supreme Court ruling that legalized
abortion, few thought an early 1960s court ruling on birth control would
become the abortion ruling’s basis, he said.
“The concerns he expressed before the ruling are not lessened,” Mr.
Geer said. “They’re validated by this decision.”
In April, Mr. 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.”
The statement sparked a national furor among gay and lesbian rights
activists, who called for Mr. Santorum’s ouster from a top Republican post.
The White House backed Mr. Santorum, who remains chairman of the Senate
Republican Conference.
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