Senator
Links Gay Sex with Bigamy, Incest
Gay.com,
April 21, 2003
By Christopher Lisotta, Gay.com / PlanetOut.com Network
SUMMARY: In remarks that angered many politicians and
gay rights advocates, Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., compared consensual gay sex
to bigamy, polygamy and incest.
In remarks that angered many politicians and gay rights
advocates, Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., lashed out at the Supreme Court case
that challenges sodomy laws, comparing consensual gay sex to bigamy, polygamy
and incest.
“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 an interview
published on Monday by the Associated Press.
Santorum is the Republican Party’s conference chairman,
the third highest seat in the GOP leadership. Elected to the Senate in 1994
after serving two terms in the house, Santorum, 44, has quickly become one of
the most influential members of the Senate on social issues.
“All of those things are antithetical to a healthy,
stable, traditional family,” Santorum continued. “And that’s sort of
where we are in today’s world, unfortunately. It all comes from, I would
argue, this right to privacy that doesn’t exist, in my opinion, in the
United States Constitution.”
Gay rights groups were quick to react to Santorum’s
comments, calling them a divisive step backward, out of touch with growing
mainstream acceptance of GLBT life in America.
“Sen. Santorum’s remarks are deeply hurtful and play
on deep-seated fears that fly in the face of scientific evidence, common sense
and basic decency. Clearly, there is no compassion in his conservatism,”
said Winnie Stachelberg, political director of the Human Rights Campaign, the
nation’s largest GLBT political organization.
“Sen. Santorum’s comments are shameful but not
surprising, as they reflect his record of bigotry,” said Dave Noble,
executive director of the National Stonewall Democrats. “It should disturb
every fair-minded American that this is the man that Senate Republicans chose
to lead their conference.”
Noble went on to say Senate Republicans “should remove
Sen. Santorum from his position of leadership if they are truly serious about
demonstrating compassionate conservatism.”
Criticism for Santorum also came from gay Republicans.
“There is nothing conservative about allowing law
enforcement officials to enter the home of any American and arrest them for
simply being gay,” said Log Cabin Republican Executive Director Patrick
Guerriero. “I am deeply troubled that Sen. Santorum would divide America in
a time of war. Mainstream America is embracing tolerance and inclusion. I am
appalled that a member of the United States Senate leadership would advocate
dividing Americans with ugly, hate-filled rhetoric.”
Santorum’s local Log Cabin chapter also weighed in:
“The discriminatory remarks made by Sen. Santorum clearly do not reflect the
compassionate conservatism promised by our president,” said John Partain,
president of the Pennsylvania Log Cabin Republicans.
“I thought we were past these type of remarks now that
Jesse Helms is no longer in the Senate,” Partain said.
A ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court on the challenge to
Texas’ sodomy law—considered by some to be the biggest gay rights case in
a generation—is expected in June or July.
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