Santorum
Rebuke Shows Cultural Shift
The
Data Lounge, April 25, 2003
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Rick
Santorum of Pennsylvania has refused to apologize for likening homosexuality
to bestiality, incest and adultery. If anything, Santorum betrayed some
amazement to the suggestion that he had to defend himself. “I do not need to
give an apology based on what I said or what I’m saying now,” Santorum
told Fox News on Tuesday.
U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, a gay Democrat from
Massachusetts, told the Gloucester County Times that Santorum was as victim of
changing standards of political decency.
There was a time, Frank said, when Republican lawmakers
could make remarks that infuriated homosexuals but take comfort in the lack of
media coverage or in the absence of a political backlash. Frank noted that
none other than then-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., in June 1998
had suggested that gays ought to receive treatment like the kind offered to
sex addicts, kleptomaniacs and alcoholics. Lott was not censured, and no one
called for him to give up his job.
“There was very little flak,” Frank said. “In
Trent’s case it wasn’t a big deal.”
Times have changed to such an extent that Santorum now
must defend himself, even if the Pennsylvania Republican has articulated a
legal opinion about the unacceptable nature of gay sex that is held by a
majority of GOP senators, Frank said.
Some groups, such as the Log Cabin Republicans and
Republican Main Street Partnership, have offered mild rebukes to Santorum, the
third-ranking GOP leader in the Senate. But many other Republicans have
rallied to Santorum’s defense.
U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, also of Penssylvania, on Tuesday
claimed Santorum was “not a bigot.” Rush Limbaugh praised Santorum in his
broadcast on Wednesday. Gary Bauer, president of a Virginia-based group called
American Values, in an interview said Santorum was correct to defend the Texas
law banning sodomy between gay men.
“Legally, his point of view is absolutely correct,”
Bauer said. “What the controversy is about is not changing mores, but the
increasing tendency of the gay rights movement to silence any dissent by
labeling it bigotry.”
Despite the reflexive desire by conservatives to frame
legitimate protest at offensive remarks into another issue, one thing is
clear, Frank said. “Santorum is a victim of cultural lag. He doesn’t
realize that this kind of prejudice is outdated these days ... The country’s
evolving.”
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