Santorum
Defends Comments on Homosexuality
White House maintains silence on issue
CNN,
April 23, 2003
By CNN.Com Producer Sean Loughlin in Washington.
WILLIAMSPORT, Pennsylvania—Sen.
Rick Santorum on Wednesday complained that his remarks about
homosexuality—under fire by gay rights groups and some Democrats—were
“taken out of context,” but at the same time he defended them as an
accurate reflection of the law on the matter.
Santorum, R-Pennsylvania, was questioned about his
comments at a town hall meeting by a 23-year-old man who identified himself as
“a proud, gay Pennsylvanian” and said he was offended by the
remarks—part of an interview with The Associated Press—in which Santorum
appeared to compare homosexuality to incest, bigamy and adultery.
“You attacked me for who I am .... How could you
compare my sexuality and what I do in the privacy of my home to bigamy or
incest,” the man asked Santorum.
Santorum, however, stood by his comments, even as he said
they had been taken out of context. He said that if states were not allowed to
regulate homosexual activity in private homes, “you leave open the door for
a variety of other sexual activities to occur within the home and not be
regulated.”
Santorum, a lawyer, said that was not an expression of
intolerance. “It is simply a reflection of the law,” he said, saying
Justice Byron White articulated that view in a 1986 Supreme Court ruling that
dealt with homosexuality.
In the AP interview, Santorum criticized homosexuality as
he discussed a pending Supreme Court case over a sodomy law in Texas.
“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 the AP
interview.
Meanwhile, in Washington the White House maintained a
hands-off posture about the comments for a second day in a row.
“I haven’t personally talked to the president about
it, so I don’t have anything direct for the president to share,” White
House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said in response to a question about
Santorum’s comments.
Fleischer said the president typically doesn’t comment
on matters pending before the Supreme Court or people’s interpretation of
cases, and he cast Santorum’s remarks in that context.
Santorum, however, also talked about homosexuality in
general during the AP interview, and he made it clear that he did not approve
of “acts outside of traditional heterosexual relationships.”
In the April 7 interview, Santorum describes homosexual
acts as a threat to society and the family. “I have no problem with
homosexuality,” Santorum said, according to the AP. “I have a problem with
homosexual acts.”
The White House’s reluctance to offer its opinions
about Santorum’s remarks stands in sharp contrast to its response to
comments made by Sen. Trent Lott, R-Mississippi, in December that many
believed were racially insensitive and remarks in March from Rep. Jim Moran,
D-Virginia, about Jews and the war in Iraq. In both cases, the White House
criticized those comments.
And in both cases, the two men gave up their respective
leadership positions under pressure. Lott resigned as Senate majority leader
and Moran resigned as a Democratic regional whip.
Gay groups have blasted Santorum’s comments, including
the Log Cabin Republicans, an organization of gay Republicans.
Some Democrats have called on Santorum to step down from
his Senate leadership position. Santorum serves as chairman of the Republican
Senate Caucus, the number three position in the GOP leadership.
Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, one of nine Democrats
seeking his party’s 2004 presidential nomination, Wednesday, called on
Santorum to step aside from the leadership post.
“Gay-bashing is not a legitimate public policy
discussion; it is immoral,” Dean said in a statement. “Rick Santorum’s
failure to recognize that attacking people because of who they are is morally
wrong makes him unfit for a leadership position in the United States Senate.
Today, I call on Rick Santorum to resign from his post as Republican
Conference chairman.”
Santorum has stood by his comments, saying they should be
viewed in the context of the Supreme Court case. In a Tuesday statement, he
also stated his belief that “all are equal under the Constitution” and
that his remarks in the interview were not meant to be a statement on
“individual lifestyles.”
Several conservative groups have come to Santorum’s
defense.
Concerned Women for America, a conservative interest
group in Washington, released a statement criticizing the “gay thought
police” and saying Santorum was “exactly right.”
Genevieve Wood, vice president for communications at the
Family Research Council, another conservative group, agreed.
“I think the Republican party would do well to follow
Senator Santorum if they want to see pro-family voters show up on Election
Day,” she said.
[Home] [News] [Lawrence
v. Texas] [Santorum] [Spreading
Santorum]
