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.
I bet they didn't consider YOU a friend.
"Would Santorum be condemned if it were discovered that one of his staff members was living with someone without being married? That is just as much a sin as homosexuality."
Okay. We have to be able to separate our own "personalized, idealized utopias," and find a way to navigate the real world. People living together without being married a sin? Of course it is, among very conservative Christians (and orthodox Jews, and conservative Muslims!), but to most people in the US, it's...so what? (Forget that they've been sold--and have fully bought--the idea that you should "try it out" before you buy, wrong as that is); to stomp and moan about that sort of thing like Jerry Falwell without a muzzle is to....
Put Hillary in the Whitehouse.
It paints as unyielding, intolterant, judgemental extremists (by the way, I have no problem, personally, with the first three of those four, but that's just me).
No one is demeaning your beliefs. No one thinks their beliefs are superior than yours, per se. But the Republican Party is a coalition every bit as much as the Dem Party is. To set up insurmountable standards is to fracture it....
and put Hillary in the Whitehouse.
Just curious? If you knew a young couple living together, in sin, (note that I did not put that in quotes, as I'm taking you, and the issue, seriously ((and it's a heterosexual couple, to be sure)), would you simply launch your condemnation, or would you try to persuade them that they should change their ways?
The question is key, because to shriek and finger-point and scream "Sinners"! is to alienate people and drive them far from your position. But to approach them in a humane, civil, sincere manner MAY result in your changing hearts and minds for the better.
"little jeremiah" hasn't created an About page.
Good.
"BTW, you claimed that just about everyone here has a homosexual relative. If you really think that, you've drunk deep of the Koolaid."
If you really think that's NOT the case, you really haven't been to a family reunion in a while, or else no one in your family even speaks to you anymore. (Come to think of it, in your case, both could be true.)
Your #199 contains more willfully uninformed ignorance than I have encountered on FR in some time.
It helps me explain some of what I've seen in Santorum.
Uhhhh . . Santorum is anything but a libertarian. Sorry to disappoint you. (You'll have to find another demon in his closet now.)
John Robertson hasn't created an about page.Glass houses and stones don't mix well.
While you managed to sound very authoritive, and knowledgeable...most all of what you said is crap. Most all of your family members have been married for five centuries, therefore no homosexuals in your family tree. Good for you! Proof positive! Okay, you and yours are now off the list: No doubt about those manly men and womenly women! They're normal as can be!
Go stand down on the corner and tell it all to the people waiting for the next bus (and hope they don't push you under it when it comes).
I think you missed my point. My point is that people are calling Santorum a hypocrite because he thinks homosexuality is a sin, he is against public endorsement of it, yet he employs a homosexual. My point is that everyone Santorum employs is guilty of some sin or another. So is Santorum himself. So should he hire no one and hide himself?
I'm not sure what you are saying to me, but I am not going around shrieking at people and calling them sinners. I am calling for the exact opposite. I think people are wrongfully calling Santorum a hypocrite.
People like you--nasty little haters--are why the Left gets to paint every conservative there is with the words "homophobic" and "intolerant."
An understanding--not an endorsement, not an acceptance--a recognition that homosexuals are entitled to pursue their happiness, their lives, their goals (yes, as long as all that doesn't infringe on mine or yours; and yes, we can all still concur on gay marriage being off the table)... a recognition that that these people too are not "inhuman" would bring hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of middle-of-the road voters over to our side.
But you and your unnatural kind (how's it feel, being marginalized?) just stupidly hand them the ammo they need to shoot at our side.
I am in agreement with you that homosexuality is a sin.
However, I do not agree that if someone employs a homosexual, they are endorsing the sin.
Santorum has also been rather outspoken about his belief that the use of birth control is wrong. Is he a hypocrite if any of the people in his office use birth control?
I am sure he is against adultery as well. Do you condemn Santorum if one of his staff members has an affair?
Now, if you have other problems with Santorum, that's a different matter.
But everybody sins, and the vast majority of people are habitual, practicing sinners. Are you saying Santorum is a hypocrite if he has anything to do with people?
Yes, there is a political movement promoting a radical homosexual agenda. I don't disagree with you, what I disagreed with is you characterizing them as the mainstream among that community.
And yes, they are backed by the most radical of the left, not because they have any affinity for gays but because they recruit among the disenfranchised and seek to disrupt our culture and values. But again, I disagree that the mainstream gay or lesbian has any agenda of the sort.
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