Posted on 07/16/2005 12:12:46 PM PDT by gopgen
Gay-rights opponent Santorum stands by outed aide
BY STEVE GOLDSTEIN
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON - (KRT) - The senior spokesman for Sen. Rick Santorum, R- Pa., Friday confirmed to a web log that he is gay.
According to PageOneQ, an online gay and lesbian publication, director of communications Robert L. Traynham, said that he was an "out gay man who completely supports the senator."
Santorum, the third-ranking Republican in the Senate leadership has been an outspoken opponent of homosexual rights and a leading proponent of a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.
Santorum, who was traveling in Pittsburgh, released the following statement:
"Robert Traynham ... is widely respected and admired on Capitol Hill, both among the press corps and among the congressional staff, as a communications professional. Not only is Mr. Traynham an exemplary staffer, but he is also a trusted friend confidente to me and my family. Mr. Traynham is a valued member of my staff and I regret that this effort on behalf of people who oppose me has made him a target of bigotry in their eyes.
"It is entirely unacceptable that my staffs' personal lives are considered fair game by partisans looking for arguments to bolster my opponent's campaign. Mr. Traynham continues to have my full support and confidence as well as my prayers as he navigates this rude and mean spirited invasion of his personal life."
Mark Rodgers, chief of staff at the Republican conference, which Santorum chairs, said, "Robert is a tremendous employee and we're all for standing by him." Traynham's homosexuality was not news to the senator or his staff, he added.
In the online interview, Traynham defended his decision to work with the senator. "Sen. Santorum is a man of principle, he is a man who sticks up for what he believes in. I strongly do support Sen. Santorum.
Asked whether he supported Santorum's views on lesbian and gay issues, Traynham told PageOneQ, "Sen. Santorum is a family man. I have been with him for eight years and I am very proud to be with him."
The two-term senator is up for reelection next year. His expected Democratic opponent is State Treasurer Robert P. Casey, Jr.
Traynham began working for Santorum since 1997 as a press assistant and then deputy press secretary. He was press secretary for the senator's 2000 reelection campaign in Pennsylvania. Just prior to becoming communications director in the Senate office, Traynham served as director of communications for the Senate Republican Conference.
Traynham holds a bachelor of arts degree in political science from Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, where he currently serves on the Council of Trustees.
In supporting the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would prohibit gay marriage, Santorum has equated homeland security with the sanctity of traditional marriage. He has referred to gay marriage as "messing with the basic family unit."
During an interview with The Associated Press two years ago about a challenge to the constitutionality of Texas's sodomy law, Santorum said that if the Supreme Court allows gay sex at home (which it ultimately did), "you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything."
On the marriage issue, Santorum also said: "In every society, the definition of marriage has not ever to my knowledge included homosexuality. That's not to pick on homosexuality. It's not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be."
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© 2005, The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Visit Philadelphia Online, the Inquirer's World Wide Web site, at http://www.philly.com
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
That's why this has been released. The Dems hope that we will, once again, "eat our own".
Let's say that Tom DeLay hired his family members to run his campaign? Does he, as an independent person, have the right to hire he wants for his own campaign?
Or let's say that the "First Church of the Baptist Brethren" hire workers for their nursery services.
Do they have the right to hire who they want?
Would you be surprised that they hire those who fit their public message?
Are you saying that if the First Church of Baptist Brethren does not hire homosexuals for their nursery that they are bigots?
So you side with the ACLU on this one?
Or do you think that private enterprises should be allowed to hire those who match their message?
Well, everyone's actions are.
But that's no reason to go out and commit/support immorality.
So what would you do if you worked with a gay person? Do you ignore them?
How should we handle this? It's fine to say Santorum shouldn't hire him, but who should? And then should everyone in that company have to agree so as not to risk sending the whole lot of them to Hell? Is my whole neighborhood going to Hell because we don't kick out the gay couple?
They will always be among us, they always have been. Unless God is going to conveniently kill them all every once in a while a la Sodom, we have to live with them.
Was he looking for them?
Yep, and wish the mods would take a few of these pieces of bait, and MODERATE the "eaters"
To get the right wing fringe in a twitter.
Only the leftist bigots will think it is wrong to be a gay conservative.
But is hiring a gay supporting his lifestyle? Should we not be friends or neighbors to gays? I don't have to like the gay agenda, but if they are not running around in Greenwich Village Halloween Parade wear or openly making out, I don't care.
Random question.
How many making noise on this thread..
Have been trying to make sure Santorum loses re-election? Just curious if this is really about the subject, or if some people want him to lose so badly they'll even use a despicable practice by the Democrats to further their agenda.
Certainly on the fiscal side, but I think his daughter might have caused him to reconsider his social conservatism. But, I get that only from his silence. For all I know, he still considers homosexuality to be a terrible affliction that leads to countless deaths at very early ages. Cheney, however, did not hire his daughter. One simply loves ones children.
On the other hand, Santorum did hire his top aide. The question is what about that top aide's sexual preferences he knew when he hired him.
This is not about changing views. It's about the underlying philosophy that helps forms his views.
Jesus himself told Pilate that Judas was guilty of the "greater sin", which clearly argues against the idea that all sin is equally offensive to the Lord. There are other applicable Biblical references, but this one's kinda hard to argue against since it comes straight from the mouth of the Ultimate Authority.
For what it's worth, I'm with you in this debate. The employee's homosexuality shouldn't be disqualifying in this case at all.
Why don't you quit dancing around and say it?
You don't think people who don't run screaming into the street when they're near gays CAN be conservatives.
And again I ask you how has that changed Santorum's rhetoric.
If anything if Mr. Traynham disagreed with his employer, he would have left long ago.
ping to #111
"Traditional" was the descriptor he came up with after I asked if people who aren't scared to death of gays were "real, true" conservatives.
We will just have to disagree on this issue.
I suspect if it were one of Hillary's aides who had been "outed" some folks' reactions would be quite different.
As long as it's a give and take debate among FRiends, I see no reason to. But when it gets to the point of attacking fellow Freepers, that does bother me.
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