Gay
Activist Calls Santorum’s Comments Helpful
The
Advocate, May 1, 2003
Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), whose recent comments
comparing homosexuality to incest, adultery, bigamy, and polygamy have
engendered huge controversy, received an ironic thank-you from a national
leader in the gay rights movement during a panel discussion on gay politics in
Philadelphia on Wednesday.
“It helps,” said Evan Wolfson, executive director of
the Freedom to Marry Project. “Anytime we have a discussion about gay
people—the wrongness of excluding people from marriage and the deeper agenda
of our opponents—we benefit.”
The panel discussion was part of the Philadelphia-based
Equality Forum, a weeklong symposium and festival, running through Sunday,
that brings together GLBT activists from around the world. The discussion
centered on “the inside game” of lobbying the Republican-controlled
Pennsylvania legislature for an inclusive hate-crimes law.
Panelists agreed that a key to future legislative success
is portraying views like Santorum’s as outside Pennsylvania’s mainstream
while educating rural lawmakers who may be unfamiliar with gay people.
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