Santorum Skirting His Own Bigotry
York
Daily Record, May 6, 2003
P.O. Box 15122, 122 S. George St., York, PA 17402
Fax: 717-771-2009
Email: letters@ydr.com
Letters
U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum’s recent comments during an
interview with the Associated Press regarding Lawrence vs. Texas were
discriminatory and uneducated.
Santorum remarked that if the Supreme Court acknowledges
the right to consensual gay sex within a private home it is also extending
“the right to bigamy, the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest,
you have the right to adultery.” When later criticized, Santorum released a
statement that said his “comments were specific to the right to privacy and
the broader implications of a ruling.”
The argument over privacy in Lawrence vs. Texas is
superficial to the underlying issue. The Supreme Court is deciding gay rights
and the decriminalization of sodomy. In 2003, there are still 13 states in the
United States that criminalize sodomy between two consenting, adult partners
in private homes. Four of those states, including Texas, have sodomy laws that
apply only to homosexuals.
Despite enacting hate crime legislation to protect this
minority group, the government continues to label homosexual activity as
“criminal” and, consequently, denies basic privacy and anti-discrimination
rights to gays and lesbians. While Santorum may skirt around his own bigotry
and try to “politicize” his way out of this issue, he needs to realize
that continually criminalizing gay activity has implications much wider than
the broad issue of privacy.
—Ann Korsak, York
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