Santorum
Rankles Gay-Rights Groups
The senator compared homosexual sex to incest in
commenting on a Supreme Court review of a sodomy law.
Philadelphia
Inquirer, April 22, 2003
P.O. Box 8263, Philadelphia, PA 19101
Fax: 215-854-4483
Email: Inquirer.opinion@phillynews.com
By Chris Mondics, Inquirer Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON—Outraged gay-rights
groups yesterday called on Senate Republicans to consider removing Rick
Santorum (R., Pa.) from his leadership post after comments in which he
compared gay sex to incest.
The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest gay
advocacy group, and several Pennsylvania-based gay-rights organizations said
Santorum’s remarks, concerning a challenge to a Texas sodomy law under
review by the Supreme Court, were an affront to millions of Americans.
“It is stunning, stunning in its insensitivity,” said
David Smith, a spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign. “Putting
homosexuality on the same moral plane as incest is repulsive.”
Smith was reacting to a recent interview in which
Santorum was quoted as criticizing legal initiatives to overturn the Texas
sodomy law.
“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,” Santorum said in the interview
with the Associated Press.
Santorum spokeswoman Erica Clayton Wright said yesterday
that Santorum had no problem with gay relationships. “Sen. Santorum was
specifically speaking about the right to privacy within the context of the
Supreme Court case,” she said, explaining that he did not want to elevate
gay sex to the level of a constitutional right.
Santorum has long taken conservative positions on social
issues such as gay rights, abortion and school prayer.
Santorum is the third-highest-ranking member of the
Senate Republican leadership and a key conservative player on Capitol Hill. He
has long rankled abortion-rights groups by pushing for legislation to restrict
abortion rights, most notably legislation banning some late-term abortions.
Smith’s group was joined by other organizations
including the Pennsylvania Log Cabin Republicans and the Pennsylvania Gay and
Lesbian Alliance.
“The discriminatory remarks made by Sen. Santorum
clearly do not reflect the compassionate conservatism as espoused by President
George Bush and the mainstream of the Republican Party,” John Partain, of
the Pennsylvania Log Cabin Republicans, said. “His insensitive statements
are neither pro-family nor truly conservative. They are simply un-American.”
Smith sought to draw a parallel between Santorum’s
comments and remarks by Sen. Trent Lott (R., Miss.) late last year seeming to
suggest that the country was better off when segregation was legal. President
Bush quickly repudiated those remarks, and in the ensuing uproar, Lott was
forced to step down as the Senate’s Republican leader.
Philadelphia
Inquirer, April 24, 2003
PO Box 8263, Philadelphia, PA 19101
Fax: 215-854-4483
Email: Inquirer.opinion@phillynews.com
Letter: Santorum Can’t Brush Off Gay Comments
Sen. Rick Santorum’s ignorant comments regarding gay
Americans (“Santorum rankles gay-rights groups,” April 22) can’t be
brushed aside with a written “clarification” that amounts to the weakest
sort of backpedaling.
His comparison of a relationship between two loving,
consenting adults to incest, bigamy, polygamy and adultery is fallacious and
bigoted. His statement more likely represents his own obsessions and fears
than the reality of the average gay relationship.
Why does Santorum—or anyone else who is not one of the
two participants in a relationship—worry so much about sex between two
consenting adults? What occured between the two gentlemen in Texas was their
own business, not that of the police who arrested them, the state of Texas or
the U.S. Supreme Court. And it was most certainly no affair of Santorum’s.
—Jamie Roberts, Philadelphia, bodhitree3@yahoo.com
Letter: Drawing the Right Line
After reading Sen. Rick Santorum’s remarks regarding
gay sex, I would strongly disagree that he was “putting homosexuality on the
same moral plane as incest,” but rather was using various examples of where
we, as a society, should draw the line.
Gay and lesbian groups conclude that his remarks “do
not reflect the compassionate conservatism as espoused by President George
Bush and the mainstream of the Republican Party.” Since when does
“compassionate conservatism” translate as free for all?
John Partain of the Pennsylvania Log Cabin Republicans
said Santorum’s “insensitive statements are neither pro-family nor truly
conservative.” There are many who would argue that gay sex is neither
pro-family nor truly conservative.
Sen. Santorum had every right to say what he said. He is
a compassionate conservative. When it comes to gay sex, he refrains from
judging the individuals involved but will not support any laws that justify
their behavior.
—Mary Cole, Huntingdon Valley
Letter: Can’t Have It Both Ways
Rick Santorum (article, April 23) says, “I have no
problem with homosexuals—I have a problem with homosexual acts.” Does this
senator represent Pennsylvania or Alice’s Wonderland? If he has no problem
with homosexuality, then why would he compare it to acts of incest?
Using his logic, can the senator also say he has no
problem with fraud, but does have a problem with those who commit fraudulent
acts? Or he has no problem with murder, but is bothered by those who murder
people?
Santorum is caught between the literal interpretation of
the Bible and today’s compassionate world where people’s private and
consenting sexual acts are of no concern to politicians or the law. One would
hope he would stop talking from both sides of his mouth.
—Ronald P. Smolin, Philadelphia, rsmolin@ix.netcom.com
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