GLMA
Joins LGBT Civil Rights Groups in Condemning Homophobic Remarks by Santorum
Gay and
Lesbian Medical Association, April 22, 2003
For Immediate Release
Contact Kenneth Haller, MD
Voicemail: 415-255-4547, #311
Pager: 314-294-9464
E-mail: hallerka@slu.edu or ken@kenhaller.net
SAN FRANCISCO—The Gay and Lesbian
Medical Association today joined a broad coalition of lesbian, gay, bisexual,
and transgendered civil rights groups in condemning published remarks by
Senator Rick Santorum, a Pennsylvania Republican, comparing homosexuality to
bigamy, polygamy, incest and adultery. In an interview with the Associated
Press in which he discussed the Supreme Court’s recent consideration of a
Texas sodomy law, Santorum said that if the High Court overturned the law and
endorsed the right to consensual sex between same-sex partners within the
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.”
GLMA President Kenneth Haller, MD, strongly criticized
the Senator. “For Senator Santorum to use such language is an affront the
gay and lesbian persons everywhere.” Haller, a pediatrician, continued,
“One of the greatest struggles that lesbian and gay adolescents face is
violence from their peers. Calling someone ‘fag, ‘queer,’ or ‘dyke’
in school is the worst insult a kid can use, and ‘fag-bashing’ is
considered sport by some. For a person of the Senator’s stature to refer to
LGBT persons with such inflammatory language is to give license to those who
would perpetrate such violence.”
Haller concluded, “GLMA calls for Senator Santorum to
resign from his leadership positions in the Senate and the Republican Party.
Last December, when Senator Trent Lott made remarks deeply hurtful to the
African-American community, President Bush said, ‘We must continue our
advance toward full equality for every citizen, which demands the guarantee
for civil rights for all.’ GLMA fervently hopes that the President will
recognize how Senator Santorum’s remarks likewise threaten the civil rights
of LGBT persons and bring dishonor upon the Senate and the Republican
Party.”
###
GLMA, the recognized leader in LGBT health, represents
the interests of thousands of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender
physicians, medical students, and other health professionals as well as
millions of LGBT patients throughout North America. The largest organization
of its kind, GLMA was founded in 1981 to make the health care environment a
place of empathy, justice, and equity.
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