Santorum’s
Anti-Gay Remarks Fit Pattern of Discrimination
PFAW Calls on President, GOP Leaders to Repudiate
Santorum on Gays, Claim that Constitution Contains No Right to Privacy
People
For the American Way, April 23, 2003
For Immediate Release
Contact: Nathan Richter or Tracy Duckett
202-467-4999
Referring to the pending Supreme Court case on Texas’
so-called “Homosexual Conduct” law, Pennsylvania Republican Senator Rick
Santorum said in an Associated Press interview, “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.”
Later in the interview, Santorum said, “It all comes from, I would argue,
this right to privacy that doesn’t exist, in my opinion, in the United
States Constitution... Whether it’s polygamy, whether it’s adultery, where
it’s sodomy, all of those things are antithetical to a healthy, stable,
traditional family.”
Following is a statement from People For the American
Way President Ralph G. Neas.
“Senator Rick Santorum’s remarks comparing the
protection of Americans’ privacy in their own homes to protecting bigamy and
incest came as a disappointment, but, sadly, not as a surprise. Santorum’s
record demonstrates a history of hostility toward equal rights for all
Americans, and that hostility is reflected in the attitudes of the Republican
party leaders and the many of the judicial nominees of President Bush.”
“Santorum missed an opportunity to apologize for these
insensitive comments. Instead, he claimed that his comments were in keeping
with his belief that everyone is ‘equal under the Constitution.’ It is
evident from his record that this is not the case. The White House and
Santorum’s colleagues in the GOP leadership also chose to maintain their
silence on Santorum’s attack on equal rights. They should repudiate his
comments, and affirm an inclusive vision of America where privacy and equal
rights are guaranteed for all.
“Since 2001, Santorum, with the president’s blessing,
has worked to include language specifically authorizing discrimination into a
piece of so-called ‘faith-based’ legislation. Santorum previously admitted
that he wanted to allow religious organizations to be able to take public
funds but still discriminate against gay people. Fortunately, despite
Santorum’s position as third-highest ranking Republican in the Senate
Leadership, he was forced to remove his divisive provisions from the final
version passed in the Senate.
“Santorum’s record closely matches that of other far
right ideologues. Alabama Attorney General William Pryor—who is one of
President Bush’s troubling federal appeals court nominees—in his state’s
amicus curiae brief to the Supreme Court in the Texas case equated the right
of gay Americans to engage in consensual sex within their own homes to
‘activities like prostitution, adultery, necrophilia, bestiality, possession
of child pornography, and even incest and pedophilia...’
“The comments of Santorum’s spokesperson that he
‘has no problem with gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender individuals’
rings hollow. Santorum describes gay people as a threat to healthy families.
His record supporting discrimination through charitable choice legislation,
and his opposition to hate crimes legislation demonstrate instead that
Santorum believes gay Americans don’t deserve full equality with other
Americans.
“The silence from the White House and Republican party
leaders about Senator Santorum’s comments, combined with Bush’s troubling
judicial nominees and his executive orders supporting discriminatory hiring in
religious institutions, all point to the high stakes in this summer’s likely
battle for the future of the Supreme Court. Will the next justice support
privacy and equal rights for all, or will these and other freedoms be
restricted for generations to come?
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