Senator
in Heated Exchange with Parents of Gay Children
New
York Times, May 2, 2003
229 W. 43rd Street, New York, NY 10036
Fax: 212-556-3622
Email: letters@nytimes.com
By Sheryl Gay Stolberg
WASHINGTON—Four parents of gay
children had a fiery private exchange tonight with Senator Rick Santorum of
Pennsylvania. The meeting did not go well, and Mr. Santorum, who has
infuriated gays by likening homosexuality to incest and bigamy, left in a
hurry, tripping over a chair, the parents said.
“What we tried to do in this meeting was reach him on a
human level, and we found no humanity there,” said Melina Waldo, a former
constituent of Mr. Santorum who lives in Haddonfield, N.J. She said he was
“condescending, belligerent, argumentative and arrogant.”
A spokeswoman for Mr. Santorum, Erica Clayton Wright,
described the meeting as “a very professional and polite exchange.” She
declined to give details, however, saying, “Constituent meetings are
private.”
Mr. Santorum has been under fire from gay rights
organizations for nearly two weeks, since The Associated Press published an
article quoting his views on a Supreme Court case that involves a ban in Texas
against sodomy. Mr. Santorum, third in the Senate Republican leadership, said
states should have the right to legislate against homosexual activity, just as
they prohibit bigamy and incest.
The remarks prompted widespread criticism and calls by
gay rights groups for Mr. Santorum to resign his leadership post. Republican
leaders in the House and Senate have stood by him.
The parents who met tonight are members of Parents and
Friends of Lesbians and Gays, an advocacy group that has not spoken publicly
before on Mr. Santorum, but is in Washington to lobby lawmakers on issues like
hate crimes and safe schools for gay youths.
Also present for the meeting were Mrs. Waldo’s husband,
Richard, a lifelong Republican who he voted two times for Mr. Santorum, and
two constituents of the senator, Fran and Allen Kirschner of Philadelphia.
Mrs. Kirschner said she spent much of last week telephoning Mr. Santorum’s
office to request a meeting and was told today that the senator would see them
for 10 minutes.
The meeting, with a heated exchange, ran 30 minutes, the
parents said. The parents, Mrs. Kirschner said, insisted that the comments
were hurtful to their children. Mr. Santorum, they said, wanted to talk about
legal terms, insisting that he was just arguing against a right to privacy and
that his remarks had been taken out of context.
Finally, an aide interrupted the session and told Mr.
Santorum that he would have to leave.
“He couldn’t get out of there fast enough,” Mr.
Kirschner said.
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