Gay rights groups called yesterday for Senate Republicans to repudiate remarks by Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) comparing homosexuality to bigamy, polygamy, incest and adultery.
Santorum made the remarks in an interview with the Associated Press about a Supreme Court case challenging the constitutionality of a Texas law against sodomy.
"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 said, according to the AP.
Santorum spokeswoman Erica Clayton Wright said the quote was accurate "only in the context related specifically to the right to privacy in the Supreme Court case." The senator, she said, "has no problem with gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender individuals."
The Human Rights Campaign, a Washington-based gay rights organization, joined several Pennsylvania groups -- including the Philadelphia-based Center for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights and the Pennsylvania Log Cabin Republicans -- in calling for Republicans to remove Santorum from his leadership position.
Santorum is chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, the party's number three post.
"These remarks certainly do not reflect the tone of compassionate conservatism espoused by President Bush," said John Partain, president of the Philadelphia chapter of Log Cabin Republicans. "He's out of step with mainstream Republicans. He's aligning himself with the fringe right-wing extremists of the party."
The gay rights groups likened Santorum's remarks to those last December by Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) extolling Strom Thurmond's 1948 segregationist presidential campaign. Accused of racism, Lott was forced to resign as majority leader.
"For the second time in a matter of months, we see a senior Republican leader in the Senate disparaging an entire group of Americans," said HRC spokesman David Smith. "While we welcome his spokeswoman's clarification that he has no problem with gay people, it's analogous to saying, 'I have no problem with Jewish people or black people, I just don't think they should be equal under the law.' "
WASHINGTON - Outraged gay-rights groups yesterday called on Senate Republicans to consider removing Rick Santorum (R., Pa.) from his leadership post after comments in which he compared gay sex to incest.
The Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay advocacy group, and several Pennsylvania-based gay-rights organizations said Santorum's remarks, concerning a challenge to a Texas sodomy law under review by the Supreme Court, were an affront to millions of Americans.
"It is stunning, stunning in its insensitivity," said David Smith, a spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign. "Putting homosexuality on the same moral plane as incest is repulsive."
Smith was reacting to a recent interview in which Santorum was quoted as criticizing legal initiatives to overturn the 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 said in the interview with the Associated Press.
Santorum spokeswoman Erica Clayton Wright said yesterday that Santorum had no problem with gay relationships. "Sen. Santorum was specifically speaking about the right to privacy within the context of the Supreme Court case," she said, explaining that he did not want to elevate gay sex to the level of a constitutional right.
Santorum has long taken conservative positions on social issues such as gay rights, abortion and school prayer.
Santorum is the third-highest-ranking member of the Senate Republican leadership and a key conservative player on Capitol Hill. He has long rankled abortion-rights groups by pushing for legislation to restrict abortion rights, most notably legislation banning some late-term abortions.
Smith's group was joined by other organizations including the Pennsylvania Log Cabin Republicans and the Pennsylvania Gay and Lesbian Alliance.
"The discriminatory remarks made by Sen. Santorum clearly do not reflect the compassionate conservatism as espoused by President George Bush and the mainstream of the Republican Party," John Partain, of the Pennsylvania Log Cabin Republicans, said. "His insensitive statements are neither pro-family nor truly conservative. They are simply un-American."
Smith sought to draw a parallel between Santorum's comments and remarks by Sen. Trent Lott (R., Miss.) late last year seeming to suggest that the country was better off when segregation was legal. President Bush quickly repudiated those remarks, and in the ensuing uproar, Lott was forced to step down as the Senate's Republican leader.
Contact staff writer Chris Mondics at 202-383-6024 or cmondics@krwashington.com.
Some said the comments could be as ruinous as Trent Lott's remarks in December praising Strom Thurmond's 1948 segregationist campaign for president - words that ultimately forced him to resign as Senate Republican leader.
"We're calling on the Republican leadership to repudiate his remarks and reconsider his position," said David M. Smith, spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay advocacy group.
Santorum, R-Pa., is chairman of the GOP conference in the Senate, making him the No. 3 guy in the party leadership, after Majority Leader Bill Frist, of Tennessee, and Assistant Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky.
Santorum criticized homosexuality during an interview with the Associated Press while talking about 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, said in the interview, published yesterday.
Santorum's spokeswoman said the comments "were specific to the Supreme Court case." The White House and Frist did not comment last night.
Lott resigned in December after making comments at Thurmond's 100th birthday party that were considered racially insensitive. He later apologized.
Gay-rights groups said Santorum's remarks reflected poorly upon him and on Pennsylvania, where there are more than 21,000 gay and lesbian coupled households, according to the 2000 Census Report.
"If we're going to condemn someone like Trent Lott for racial comments, then we certainly should be able to come out with disgust against Sen. Santorum," said John Partain, president of the Log Cabin Republicans of Philadelphia, a gay Republican group.
And Stacy Sobel, executive director of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights in Philadelphia, agreed.
"What concerns me is that one of our elected officials is making a statement that supports stereotypes and detracts from the ability of lesbian and gay families to take care of themselves," she said. "He should be called onto the carpet for that."
Other groups that spoke out against Santorum included the Pennsylvania Gender Rights Coalition, the League of Gay and Lesbian Voters and the Pennsylvania Gender Rights Coalition.