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Gay Groups Ask Senate GOP to Reconsider Santorum Post After 'insensitive' Remarks
AP ^ | 4/21/03 | Lara Jakes Jordan

Posted on 04/21/2003 2:39:07 PM PDT by Jean S

WASHINGTON (AP) - Gay-rights groups, fuming over Sen. Rick Santorum's comparison of homosexuality to bigamy, polygamy, incest and adultery, urged Republican leaders Monday to consider removing the Pennsylvania lawmaker from the GOP Senate leadership.

A coalition of groups in Washington and Pennsylvania compared Santorum's remarks to those by those last December by former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott about Strom Thurmond's 1948 segregationist campaign for the presidency. Shortly afterward, Lott was forced to resign as Republican Senate leader.

Santorum is chairman of the GOP conference in the Senate, third in his party's leadership, behind Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee and Assistant Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

"We're urging the Republican leadership to condemn the remarks. They were stunning in their sensitivity, and they're the same types of remarks that sparked outrage toward Sen. Lott," said David Smith, a spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay advocacy organization. "We would ask that the leadership reconsider his standing within the conference leadership."

In an interview with The Associated Press, Santorum criticized homosexuality while discussing a pending Supreme Court case over a Texas sodomy law.

"If 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," Santorum, R-Pa., said in the interview, published Monday.

Santorum's spokeswoman did not have an immediate comment to the criticism from the gay rights groups. The White House did not immediately return a call seeking comment, and a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Frist declined comment.

Lott resigned his post in December after making remarks at a 100th birthday celebration for Thurmond that were widely considered racially insensitive and condemned by the White House. Lott later apologized.

Among the groups condemning Santorum's remarks were the Center for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights, the Pennsylvania Log Cabin Republicans, OutFront, and the Pennsylvania Gender Rights Coalition.

---

On the Net:

Sen. Rick Santorum: http://santorum.senate.gov/

Human Rights Campaign: http://www.hrc.org/

AP-ES-04-21-03 1715EDT


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Pennsylvania
KEYWORDS: catholiclist; homosexualagenda; moralrelativism; ricksantorum
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To: Emmylou
How about treating gays equally under the law

There is no law in the United States that treats gays and straights differently.

What is conservative about the government regulating what two people do in their own home?

You're confusing conservatism with libertarianism. The US since its inception has had laws regulating sexual behavior. Conservatism says don't change those laws without good reason to expect doing so will improve society. Libertarianism says such laws are ideologically unsound.

41 posted on 04/21/2003 3:43:03 PM PDT by Right Wing Professor
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To: Emmylou
The constitution directly protects freedom of religion and religious expression. The issue of homosexuality is a local issue. Personally, I do not support what happened in Texas.

Along with that constitutional support of religion comes a bunch of negatives. There are many things we cannot do as Christians (Muslims, Jews, etc..).

Other than the Texas situation, name another jailing of someone for being gay? 99.9% of the gay issues we are arguing about is whether or not the rest of us can be forced to approve. It's our freedom we are talking about.

Santorum was making a statement about whether homosexuality is a constitutional right or whether it is a liberty that can be regulated on a state level. If it is a constitutional right then so are all the things Santorum listed -- whether you think those things are a worthy comparison or not.

42 posted on 04/21/2003 3:43:55 PM PDT by RAT Patrol (Congress can give one American a dollar only by first taking it away from another American. -W.W.)
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To: Cicero
It's just not worth trying to make nice with these people. How many votes will it get? Rick Santorum is one of the few really honest, decent, reliably pro-life leaders in the Senate.

Yes, but Marc Racicot is too damn stupid to realize, apparently, that the HRC is joined at the hip with radical abortion supporters, and are just carrying water for the Socialist alliance. Rick Santorum is the #1 reason why we will have a partial-birth ban signed into law this year--by far the most eloquent debater on the subject--and from a critical electorate state to boot.

That this p.r. will be even discussed by the RNC and its cowardly lion Racicot is pathetic. If anyone should be dumped it is he, if only for betraying the party by refusing to unseat Max Baucus in the last election.

43 posted on 04/21/2003 3:47:01 PM PDT by montag813
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To: Emmylou
How about treating gays equally under the law because it's the right and just thing to do, not because they're trying to 'make nice' with them.

They don't want equality, which they already have. They want special rights, including stifling the rights of others, in the name of "tolerance". They should start showing some tolerance for traditional value, IMHO,

44 posted on 04/21/2003 3:47:02 PM PDT by SunStar (Democrats piss me off!)
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To: Emmylou
Are you a Log Cabin Republican? Or simply misguided?
45 posted on 04/21/2003 3:49:02 PM PDT by SunStar (Democrats piss me off!)
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To: JeanS
SANTORUM R-PA, SAID: ""If 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."

The only correction that needs to be made is that since homosexuality is claimed to be a "SEXUAL ORIENTATION," then bigamy/polygamy might NOT be included since they just involve multiple-partner marriage.

The "SEXUAL ORIENTATION" of PEDOPHILIA, however, WOULD be protected.

46 posted on 04/21/2003 3:50:20 PM PDT by Concerned
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To: Emmylou
He didn't say they should be arrested. He said that sodomy is wrong, or words to that effect, just as adultery is wrong. How many people are arrested for adultery these days?
47 posted on 04/21/2003 3:58:45 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: Emmylou
Emmylou, you are out of touch if you think homosexuality is what "two people do in their own home..." (Your words)
Homosexuality is about recruiting new homosexuals, every day. Look at what homosexuals are doing in the public schools, and in the corporations with the "re-education camps", politely called diversity training. Homosexuals in education (teachers and counselors) seduce the young mentally and physically everyday. IT IS NOT NORMAL whether it is done in private or the courthouse steps at noon.
48 posted on 04/21/2003 3:59:08 PM PDT by Tahoe3002
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To: JeanS
If 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,"

He misses the boat on polygamy. A much stronger biblical case can be made for a right to polygamy, than homosexuality. Some of the patriarchs were apparently blessed in their polygamy, whereas homosexuality was always regarded as an abomination.

But polygamy won't fly in today's political climate because it offends feminists. Then again, so does heterosexuality of any kind.

49 posted on 04/21/2003 4:25:43 PM PDT by Rytwyng
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To: Cicero
How many people are arrested for adultery these days?

Not enough.

50 posted on 04/21/2003 4:26:21 PM PDT by Rytwyng
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To: Emmylou
"As they say around these parts, walk a mile in their shoes."

...God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.... Romans 1:26-31

No thanks. You walk a mile in those shoes, if you can stand the stench!

51 posted on 04/21/2003 4:31:12 PM PDT by Gritty
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To: montag813; Cicero
{the HRC is joined at the hip with radical abortion supporters, and are just carrying water for the Socialist alliance}

Gay rights activists are hard core Marxists. Even if they were normal, they would still vote for the RATS. Gays favor partial-birth abortion, gun control, increased funding for government schools, and limitations on homeschooling. Just look at the gay -friendly states: Kalifornica, Taxachusetts, Maine, and New York. These are pro-tax/pro-abortion/ gun grabbin' Marxist wastelands.
52 posted on 04/21/2003 4:39:02 PM PDT by Kuksool
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To: Right Wing Professor
There is no law in the United States that treats gays and straights differently.

That is certainly not true. I'll give you two examples from the many available.

First, Nebraska has a hate crimes law that treats gay victims differently from straight victims.

Second, the U.S. has the famous "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law that expels gays from the military. Under that law, if a gay persons says that he is gay, then he is expelled from the military. But if a straight person (poor Klinger from M.A.S.H.!) says that he is gay, he is not expelled. Just saying that you are gay is not enough to get expelled. You actually have to be found to be gay, even if you have never engaged nor ever intend to engage in homosexual activities.

53 posted on 04/21/2003 4:49:10 PM PDT by MikeJ75
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To: MikeJ75
The military discriminates against a bunch of people for physical reasons. Gays can't donate blood because they are high risk for disease. Why should a soldier have to risk blood exposure and disease that the general public does not have to risk? That's not a fair analogy. Frankly, I think don't ask/ don't tell is wrong. They should ask/tell/get booted out. No one has a right to risk someone else's health.
54 posted on 04/21/2003 4:54:32 PM PDT by RAT Patrol (Congress can give one American a dollar only by first taking it away from another American. -W.W.)
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To: Emmylou
What is conservative about the government regulating what two people do in their own home?

What is conservative about the government regulating what three people do in their own home?

I mean, rather than just whining, why don't these groups debate Sen. Santorum honestly? It seems to me that it is awfully hard to defend laws against polygamy (involving consenting adults, obviously) if you allow homosexual "marriage."

55 posted on 04/21/2003 4:54:50 PM PDT by B Knotts
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To: JeanS; Emmylou; RAT Patrol; HumanaeVitae; Remedy
The gay rights organizations are nothing more than subsidiaries of the RATS. Gays elect RATS for gov't office. The Human Rights Campaign donates nearly all of its campaign contributions to the RATS. The whole outrage at Sen. Santorum's is just a cheap partisan attack. The gay activists are trying to smear Santorum in order to weaken him politically. They are hoping that Santorum will be so ashamed of himself that he would resign his Senate seat. This would enable Fast Eddie Rendell ( RAT Governor of PA) to appoint a RAT to the Senate.
56 posted on 04/21/2003 5:06:07 PM PDT by Kuksool
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To: JeanS
Asking for resignation for these comments is a definite over-reach from these gay extremist groups. Santorum voiced his disagreement with their agenda- his views are widely held and gay marriage has been voted down even in Liberal California. For these gay extremist groups to call for resignation on these mainstream remarks only marginalizes them further.
57 posted on 04/21/2003 5:13:48 PM PDT by jagrmeister
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To: .45MAN; AKA Elena; al_c; american colleen; Angelus Errare; Antoninus; aposiopetic; Aquinasfan; ...
Gay-rights groups, fuming over Sen. Rick Santorum's comparison of homosexuality to bigamy, polygamy, incest and adultery, urged Republican leaders Monday to consider removing the Pennsylvania lawmaker from the GOP Senate leadership.

Judeo-Christian belief: The real Counter Culture!

I think the gays are being very insensitive, openly implying there's something wrong with bigamy, polygamy, incest and adultery.

Awefully un PC of them, if you ask me.

58 posted on 04/21/2003 5:14:50 PM PDT by Polycarp ("He who denies the existence of God, has some reason for wishing that God did not exist.")
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To: JeanS
Morality aside, costs will soar if the "diversity" crowd gets their way. What's to stop, say, female roomates from claiming the lifetime Social Security benefit from their deceased friend claiming they were "married". Who's to say they weren't?

Never mind health care, the costs of deteriorating family structures, etc.
59 posted on 04/21/2003 5:19:54 PM PDT by P.O.E. (God Bless and keep safe our troops.)
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To: Rytwyng
I don't think there's a case in the whole Bible where polygamous marriages didn't cause awful problems. (Judaism effectively banned it around 1000 CE.)

Slavery was also not prohibited in the Bible. Though likewise, the Bible never calls slavery good.

60 posted on 04/21/2003 5:37:30 PM PDT by onedoug
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