Santorum
Meeting Went Badly, Parents Say
Philadelphia
Inquirer, May 3, 2003
P.O. Box 8263, Philadelphia, PA 19101
Fax: 215-854-4483
Email: Inquirer.opinion@phillynews.com
By Chris Mondics, Inquirer Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON—Two Philadelphia-area
couples with gay children met with Sen. Rick Santorum (R., Pa.) late Thursday
to try to persuade him to take a more sympathetic approach to gays, but they
said they ran up against a brick wall.
In fact, they contended that Santorum was downright
hostile.
Allen and Francis Kirschner of Center City, along with
former Pennsylvania residents Melina and Richard Waldo of Haddonfield, N.J.,
met with Santorum at his Senate office for a half-hour to discuss remarks in
which Santorum seemed to compare homosexuality to incest and adultery.
Allen Kirschner said yesterday that things went badly
from the start.
“We were trying to impress upon him how hurtful his
comments were, and we were taken aback that a person in his position would
make such remarks and not apologize for them,” Kirschner said. “He got a
little upset and started telling us about the privacy laws and that he is an
attorney and that we were just parents. We weren’t there to make a legal
argument. We were there to support our children.”
Kirschner described Santorum as rude during the meeting,
occasionally talking over the parents.
Santorum spokeswoman Erica Clayton Wright said the
senator took a respectful approach as he tried to explain his views.
“It was a respectful and professional exchange,”
Clayton Wright said. “He further clarified that his statements were taken
out of context or were misinterpreted, and that is where they left it.”
In a recent Associated Press interview, Santorum asserted
that if the Supreme Court struck down a Texas ban on gay sex, “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.”
His remarks triggered outrage in the gay community and
calls that he step down from his Senate leadership post. He has received wide
support from his Republican Senate colleagues, who say his chairmanship of the
Senate Republican Conference is secure.
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