Anti-Gay
Remark Trips GOP Leader
The
Data Lounge, April 21, 2003
WASHINGTON—National gay civil
rights groups called on the Republican leadership to remove Pennsylvania
Senator Rick Santorum as chairman of the GOP Senate conference, after he
compared homosexuality to bigamy, polygamy, incest and adultery.
In an interview with the Associated Press, the third
highest ranking Republican in the Senate was asked to comment on the Texas
sodomy case currently before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Said Santorum: “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.”
A spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s
largest gay rights advocacy group, dubbed Santorum’s remarks “stunning,”
and compared them to Sen. Trent Lott’s remarks in December praising Strom
Thurmond’s 1948 segregationist campaign for president. The ensuing
controversy eventually forced Lott’s resignation from his position as
majority leader.
“We’re calling on the Republican leadership to
repudiate his remarks and reconsider his position,” said the HRC’s David
Smith.
Santorum’s spokeswoman said the comments “were
specific to the Supreme Court case.” The White House and Senate Majority
Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee have so far declined to comment.
Even the normally apologist Log Cabin Republicans took
offense. “If we’re going to condemn someone like Trent Lott for racial
comments, then we certainly should be able to come out with disgust against
Sen. Santorum,” said John Partain, president of the Log Cabin Republicans of
Philadelphia, a gay Republican group.
And Stacy Sobel, executive director of the Center for
Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights in Philadelphia, agreed.
“What concerns me is that one of our elected officials
is making a statement that supports stereotypes and detracts from the ability
of lesbian and gay families to take care of themselves,” she said. “He
should be called onto the carpet for that.”
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