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."
---
© 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.
"DON'T and GIVE FODDER TO LIBERALS because of YOUR OWN HYPOCRISY. Save you twisted psycho babble for someone who is interested in to."
It's your quotes that will be lifted and used against us, in many a Lefty and Dem website, and may even crop up in MSM articles and news reports, as examples of the "homophobes over on ultraconservative website FreeRepublic." YOU, you incoherent clown, will pull all of us down. They will use you against us. Thanks.
Three things about "psycho babble," by the way:
1. It's one word.
2. To say it's "twisted" is redundant.
3. You misused it.
These threads help to identify "the problems," if you get my drift. :-)
In this post, you have posted a lie in a blatant attempt to slander someone.
Lying is condemned just as strongly as homosexuality.
So you think they are a traitor?
"So you agree with me."
No, I don't. Don't twist what I say, please.
As far as your coming from a "large family," and there were no homosexuals in it...well, don't bet on it. By the way, I did not conflate race and homosexuality--that's your connection, not mine.
"I just don't like the idea of them pushing their agenda in schools, and government and I still have a right to say so."
Finally, we agree on something. Especially your right to say so. And I know you endorse my right to disagree vehemently with you on your approach to this subject, which I think is appalling. Again, my right to say so.
Another interesting thread I see
Anyway, if you have to type it, it's libel.
"What a pompous ass you are, talking down like that. "
This guy has a few screws loose. He seems to be mainly targeting us. I vote for ignoring him completely for the rest of the thread. What a jackass. What do you say?
I would say that I will never support Newt Gingrich for president because of his treachery toward his wife. I will say that one of the nails in the political coffin of Bill Clinton is his betrayal of his wife.
If you can document for me that Rick Santorum knowingly and wrecklessly employees adulterers, thieves, prostitutes, pimps, drug dealers, or those who engage in other similarly destructive behaviors, then it will simply be another nail for me in the political coffin of Sen. Rick Santorum.
Is that clear enough for you?
"Some of my best friends are black!"
Some of my best friends are gay black conservatives.
(Well, "some" is pushing it--I mean, how many could there be? By the way, I have enjoyed our being pretty much in agreement on this issue this evening, as I'm pretty sure we have hit heads in the past, on other things. Relax, I'm sure we'll disagree on something else soon.)
Gosh, I'm so tired of hearing that excuse, are you? ;-)
Yeah.
He said she admitted that she is not a conservative.
Fine, that's libel, especially on a conservative board.
"Just to clear the record, let me state without a doubt, no one in my family has ever been married for five centuries!"
No...(drum roll)...it just SEEMED that long! (Old joke.)
All kidding aside, you did know what I meant, right? All your family members...across five centuries...oh, never mind.
Now couple the above with the very important results of the Twins Studies, a summary of what science has stated and the extremely important growing number of ex-gays.
And as a professing Christian, what's your take on 1 Cor 6:9-11:
Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our GodThat clearly says some folks were formerly homosexual.
Here are a number of testimonials from ex-gays. Claiming they were anything less than 100% gay at some point in their life is quite offensive.
Checkout the I Do Exist video. Regarding the I Do Exist video, Ryan Zempel makes the following observation in It really is elementary: Ex-gays exist:
A 22-year-old man stands before a classroom of middle schoolers, describing how he came out as a homosexual and going so far as to declare, "there are gay students in this classroom."If there were such a thing as a gay gene, then there would also have to be an ex-gay gene that is growing in number as there are a growing number of ex-gays.The young man is Noé Gutierrez, Jr., and the scene is one from It's Elementary, an award-winning 1996 video (widely aired in 1999) which aims to give "practical lessons on how to talk with kids about gay people."
You won't find that scene in Gutierrez's latest video, however. Although he requested permission to use it, producer/director Debra Chasnoff turned him down. Apparently, she doesn't want school children knowing what's happened since then.
You see, Gutierrez is no longer gay.
Checkout my profile for more information.
You said:
"Sexuality and abortion have no place on a politcal platform."
Well, since the Democrats have same sex marriage (at least recently) and abortion as main planks of their platform, if Republicans say nothing about them, we are by default surrendering to their agenda. What do you think of that?
Seriously, imagine someone saying "my homosexual friend."
Very telling, IMO, because nobody indentifies their "hetrosexual friends."
And I am relaxed; hey, I'm getting older and honestly never remember when I disagree with somebody -- unless it's a "repeat offender." :-)
You're perfectly within your rights to abhor someone who murders a homosexual more than you abhor someone who theoretically murders my elderly mother (although you'd be a fool) but your personal abhorrance has nothing and should have nothing to do with severity of punishment.
If a person receives a more severe punishment for committing a crime against a homosexual than against my elderly mother, we have indeed entered the world of thought crimes. In such a world, some people (in this case, the hypothetical homosexual victim) is of more value than my elderly mother as a victim.
You may like that world; most of us do not.
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