Santorum
Must Explain Remarks
Erie
Times News , April 23, 2003
205 W. 12th Street, Erie, PA 16534
Fax: 814-870-1808
Email: newsdesk@timesnews.com
His words seem to speak for themselves. In an interview
with the Associated Press on a high court case challenging the
constitutionality of a Texas law against sodomy, Santorum said:
的f 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.?
Where in the world did this come from? What the Supreme
Court considers is whether the government has any business intruding on what
goes on behind closed doors in America痴 adult bedrooms. The court is
hopefully蓉nlike the Texas law用reparing to say government does not.
Although Santorum has not responded to the predictable
firestorm his remarks sparked, spokeswoman Erica Clayton Wright said the quote
was accurate 登nly in the context related specifically to the right to
privacy in the Supreme Court case.? The senator, she said, 塗as no problem
with gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender individuals.?
That is not reassuring. It痴 not nearly good enough.
It痴 sort of like saying. 的 have no problem with Jewish people or blacks.
They池e some of my best friends.?
Maybe that isn稚 fair. But neither were Santorum痴
observations. And The Human Rights Campaign, a Washington-based gay rights
organization, joined several Pennsylvania groups擁ncluding the
Philadelphia-based Center for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights and the
Pennsylvania Log Cabin Republicans擁n calling for Republicans to remove
Santorum from his leadership position as chairman of the Senate Republican
Conference (the party痴 No. 3 post).
Former Senate Minority Leader and soon to be Majority
Leader Trent Lott was expelled from his leadership position for extolling
Strom Thurmond痴 1948 segregationist presidential campaign. His pining for
the good old days when segregation ruled the South embarrassed Republicans and
led to his quick and necessary exit.
Santorum痴 remarks don稚 have the same incendiary
racism effect. But they do call for his fellow senators to at least demand he
clarify and hopefully repudiate these callous words. So far, their silence
speaks volumes.
Conservatives like Sen. Santorum believe in restricting
government power. Then why let police snoop into our bedrooms?
We壇 like to hear the senator痴 answer.
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