Senator
Catches GOP Flak Over Comments on Gays
Colleagues chide Santorum for his ‘regrettable’
and ‘hurtful’ statements.
Los
Angeles Times, April 25, 2003
Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053
Fax: 213-237-7679 or 213-237-5319
Email: letters@latimes.com
By Nick Anderson, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON—Sen. Rick Santorum of
Pennsylvania, the Senate’s third-ranking Republican, sought Thursday to
weather the uproar over his recent remarks on homosexuality, despite emerging
criticism from a handful of GOP lawmakers and groups.
In muted statements this week, three Republican
senators— Gordon Smith of Oregon and Susan Collins and Olympia J. Snowe of
Maine— expressed disagreement with Santorum’s comments.
In an April 7 interview that was published this week,
Santorum told Associated Press that he opposed a constitutional right to
privacy that would protect consensual gay sex. He linked gay sex with incest,
polygamy, bigamy and adultery. He also spoke out against “homosexual acts”
and behavior such as sodomy, polygamy and adultery, which he called
“antithetical” to a healthy family.
But Santorum insisted he was not criticizing
homosexuality per se. In response to his critics, he has said his comments
have been misconstrued and that he was merely repeating standard legal views
concerning the constitutionality of laws forbidding sodomy.
But Smith said Thursday that Santorum had used language
“hurtful to the gay and lesbian community,” and that he hoped the U.S.
Supreme Court soon would rule to strike down a Texas anti-sodomy law.
In a statement Wednesday, Snowe said: “I believe Sen.
Santorum’s unfortunate remarks undermine Republican principles of inclusion
and opportunity.” On Tuesday, Collins called Santorum’s choice of words
“regrettable” and his legal analysis “wrong.”
The Republican Unity Coalition, which describes itself as
a gay and heterosexual alliance of GOP members, demanded an apology from
Santorum. Advisors to the coalition include former President Ford; Mary
Cheney, Vice President Dick Cheney’s daughter, who is a lesbian; and Rep.
Jim Kolbe of Arizona, who is the only openly gay Republican in Congress.
The coalition said Wednesday that Santorum made “false
and harmful comparisons that do not distinguish between conduct that is
harmful and hurtful to fellow humans and society, and conduct between
consenting adults in the sanctity of their own home that harms absolutely no
one.”
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), in an interview Wednesday on
MSNBC, said Santorum “may have been in-artful.” In his experience, McCain
said, “the best thing to do is to apologize if you’ve offended
anyone—because I’m sure that Rick did not intend to offend anyone.”
The Christian Coalition of America defended Santorum on
Thursday.
“This is simply a great example of mean-spirited
politics,” said Roberta Combs, the group’s president. “Bankrupt of
positive ideas, liberals pursue this issue in the hope of attention with
exaggerated explanations of Sen. Santorum’s statement. Democratic
politicians and the left-wing press should be ashamed for inhibiting freedom
of speech.”
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