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Top Santorum Aide Outed As Gay
San Luis Obispo Tribune ^
| 7/15/2005
| Steve Goldstein
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.
TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Government; Politics/Elections; US: Pennsylvania
KEYWORDS: 2006elections; bedroompolice; compassionatecons; consentingadults; doasisaynotasido; dontaskdonttell; fingerinthedyke; gayagenda; gopmodsquad; howcanwefoolemtoday; howlinforestrogen; logcabinfreepers; lyingliars; myodb; oopsididitagain; outofthecloset; raginghormones; rino; santorum
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To: Tarpon
Hey. it's NOT my fault you have no principles.
Vent to someone else in the same boat as you.
621
posted on
07/17/2005 11:19:14 PM PDT
by
nmh
(Intelligent people recognize Intelligent Design (God).)
To: linkinpunk
Well, Mr. Family values man should try and be consistent and defend that too!
Morality is relative to him. He should recruit all the dysfunctional and perverted and have them work for him as he preaches against it.
622
posted on
07/17/2005 11:20:53 PM PDT
by
nmh
(Intelligent people recognize Intelligent Design (God).)
To: photodawg
By all means compartmentalize those nasty things in life. Believe person A goes to work and morphs into person B. Nah, perversion won't affect his work or view points ... Nah ... LOL!!!
623
posted on
07/17/2005 11:22:59 PM PDT
by
nmh
(Intelligent people recognize Intelligent Design (God).)
To: nobdysfool
" The very fact that Santorum has a staffer who is gay, but supports Santorum's political stance is evidence of that. "
Doesn't that raise an eyebrow with you?
A homosexual AGAINST what he is?
And this is a "top" staffer?
LOL!
624
posted on
07/17/2005 11:24:42 PM PDT
by
nmh
(Intelligent people recognize Intelligent Design (God).)
To: pa mom
"Santorum most definately does have a problem with BC and it is as great a sin in Catholic eyes as homosexuality."
I don't care if he does or does not have a problem with birth control.
THIS thread is about his hypocrisy on family values and having a "top staffer" who is a homosexual which he is supposed to be against. WHY do you drag in UNREALTED nonsense? The topic is Santorum's hypocrisy on homosexuality; NOT birth control! Geesh!!
As a Catholic is a gay Priest a non issue with him too? To be consistent in liberal logic, he shouldn't mind at all if the Priest is doing his job and he, Santorum is benefiting from it
625
posted on
07/17/2005 11:28:49 PM PDT
by
nmh
(Intelligent people recognize Intelligent Design (God).)
To: Badray
That's interesting since you're post when you said that I didn't lie, but created a scenario where people would assume a lie. Now you are lying about lying. I did not say you didn't lie - I said you were posting things trying to get the readers to draw a false inference rather than outright lying - but that is STILL lying.
You are digging your hole deeper and deeper, lady. I don't even have to do anything.
To: nmh
As a Catholic is a gay Priest a non issue with him too? To be consistent in liberal logic, he shouldn't mind at all if the Priest is doing his job and he, Santorum is benefiting from it Oh my goodness that is ridiculous. I see you still can't come up with a reason to back up your claims, hundreds of posts on the thread length later.
To: little jeremiah
"This is all due to the destruction of the virtues of chastity before marriage, and fidelity within marriage." Big ol' BUMP.
Even Republicans don't like to hear this because maybe as much as half of them are guilty of it. Their fallback is to call it "judgmental", or, if they are feeling especially guilty, "Talibanesque".
I still think divorce has a more devastating effect on our culture and society than homosexuality because it is viewed by leftists and conservatives alike as being acceptable.
Homosexuality hasn't been able to as quickly shake itself free from the "grossness factor" most people can't get over--not that the radical homoactivists aren't working at it...
628
posted on
07/18/2005 12:48:20 AM PDT
by
k2blader
(Was it wrong to kill Terri Shiavo? YES - 83.8%. FR Opinion Poll.)
To: Republican Wildcat
Here are your words:
"No, you didn't. Now, it was quite creative. You didn't outright lie in many of the things you posted, but you twisted things to get the reader to draw an inference that was a lie"
Being as I didn't post that much and you haven't pointed out anything that is a lie, I have a suggestion for you. Go back to lurking. You don't do well trying to debate with adults.
629
posted on
07/18/2005 1:13:21 AM PDT
by
Badray
To: Conservative Goddess
I don't recall saying anything about Santorum's Christianity. Can you point me to the section you're talking about?
630
posted on
07/18/2005 1:56:14 AM PDT
by
xzins
(Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It!)
To: nmh
Doesn't that raise an eyebrow with you? A homosexual AGAINST what he is? Two major faults in your argument: You assume that all homosexuals are a monolithic block who oppose family values. In fact it's important that they be seen that way in your mind. Reality is less simplistic. Does the name Tammy Bruce ring a bell?
Your second fault is that you don't believe that people can hold contradictory beliefs. The fact is, most people do.
Not all homosexuals want to force their lifestyle on others. The problem is, the vocal militant minority get all the press, and the MSM helps them out by presenting the minority as though they were all of them.
Please remove your noggin from your nether regions and think clearly.
631
posted on
07/18/2005 3:39:58 AM PDT
by
nobdysfool
(Faith in Christ is the evidence of God's choosing, not the cause of it.)
To: jayhorn
You aren't middle class?
This has nothing to do with offending my friends, please. I am not 14.
632
posted on
07/18/2005 5:08:38 AM PDT
by
pa mom
To: nmh
You have a lot of hostility.
633
posted on
07/18/2005 5:09:33 AM PDT
by
pa mom
To: nmh
Being "family values" does not mean firing employees who are homosexual.
Should he fire employees who are divorced? Engaging in premarital sex? Have commited adultry? Masturbating?
To: k2blader
What say you? I'm sure you can offer excellent insight here.I appreciate the vote of confidence, but there isn't much to say.
Is Mr. Traynham living chastely? Does he promote immorality, or does he oppose it?
The important thing is not what Traynham has done in the pastor what temptations he is dealing with, but what he is actually doing about those temptations.
And the article gives zero information on that.
635
posted on
07/18/2005 5:31:04 AM PDT
by
wideawake
(God bless our brave troops and their Commander in Chief)
To: nmh
Hate the sin, love the sinner.
636
posted on
07/18/2005 6:18:30 AM PDT
by
Eva
To: k2blader
Being formerly guilty, one can change one's ways, admit wrongdoing, and legitimately promote those bedrock virtures.
637
posted on
07/18/2005 6:26:31 AM PDT
by
little jeremiah
(A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience, are incompatible with freedom. P. Henry)
To: Republican Wildcat
NO, if you're Catholic then don't get all outraged when a gay Priest molests a kid ... after all their doing their job! Right?
Santorum is Catholic, I'd expect him to be SILENT when gay Priests molest kids. JP2 was silent too.
BTW, don't you have some sort of a gay pep rally to go to?
OOOPS, I forgot, in PUBLIC act like you don't approve of it but in PRIVATE use that homosexual to YOUR advantage but verbally say you're opposed to it. I call that blatant hypocrisy.
BTW, congratulations! Gays WANT you to believe their not emotionally disturbed. They can be funny, cute, witty, STUPID and very charming. They want YOUR approval for acceptance as normal. They clamour for positions of authority so they are looked UP to. Congratulations - I see you are one of their biggest supporters!
638
posted on
07/18/2005 6:47:38 AM PDT
by
nmh
(Intelligent people recognize Intelligent Design (God).)
To: nmh
If you were in vice president Cheney's situation, how would you deal with your daughters lesbianism? Tell her its morally wrong and demand that she change? Disown her and ostracize her from the family if she didn't? The reality of life is that we are all sinners..."judge not least ye be judged". We all should follow Christ's teachings and the word of the lord. The beauty of Christianity is in the acceptance of sin as part of our nature. We must love the sinner, not the sin. Crimes should be punished, murderers should be executed. This is for justice sake. Because a person has sinned, is no reason to not respect their common humanity. Should you embrace their sin ? No. Should you embrace their humanity, and goodness in other aspects? Absolutely. This is not compartmentalizing, its understanding and accepting basic human nature. I have known many heterosexuals who were of extremely bad character. What conclusion am I to draw? I have not related well to male homosexuals that I have come across. They do not appeal to me on many levels. However, I have been able to work with them when necessary, and have found them to be trustworthy, effective employees. I have never had a male homosexual friend, but have had lesbian friends. I have found the lesbians to have just as much honesty and character as many of my heterosexual friends.
To: nobdysfool
Ah, you missed the obvious flaw - Your glaring hypocrisy as well as flawed logic.
There is nothing normal about being a homosexual. Nothing. What they want is precisely what you are giving them - acceptance and ignoring the fact that they are emotionally disturbed. It's been shown that they are physically/and or emotionally abused. So they do nearly anything to get acceptance and ideally elevated to positions of authority. They crave this.
It's so sad ... they are so desperate for peace in their life. Yet they say in that lifestyle by CHOICE and they don't have peace. To help these people is to help them overcome it - not exploit them for self betterment as Santorum is doing in private and publically claim he is against it.
If you don't stand for something, which describes Santorum, you'll fall for anything. He is not a principled man so I am not amazed that he privately endorses this man's lifestyle choice. Santorium lives in Virginia. He claims a residency in Pa. His kids live with him in Va.. The Pa school district PAYS for his kids to be taught in Va. via distance learning at TAXPAYER expense. He knows that's wrong and Pa. is NOT his primary residence but that doesn't bother him.
He explains that away with "I'm a family man". Well so are others but they don't play residency games and have others foot the bill. This is typical of Santorum. He claims one thing and does the opposite in private.
Some people do have contrary beliefs:
"Your second fault is that you don't believe that people can hold contradictory beliefs. The fact is, most people do."
Most don't and if they do it is called HYPOCRISY. It's not my fault that you and others have this dilemma. I believe you need to clean up your logic and be consistent.
The truth is some don't show it but ALL want acceptance. They don't like "being in the closet". Others are more in your face about it. Don't fool yourself - this "top staffer" just had a burden removed from him. BY choice or not, it is a relief for him. Imagine trying to hide this and function like a normal person ... he's a VERY troubled gay person. Maybe it's a joke between him and Santorum ... but a gay male isn't against homosexual rights. They want them as next as the radical gay.
Who knows! Maybe ole Santorum is a switch hitter - yeah Mr. Family Values _ LOL!!!
If you want to join his hypocrisy bandwagon - go ahead!
640
posted on
07/18/2005 7:02:01 AM PDT
by
nmh
(Intelligent people recognize Intelligent Design (God).)
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