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Old 04-30-2003, 09:15 AM
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Gimpy Gimpy is offline
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Default GOP "strangely" silent about this "snafu"???

GOP is silent about senator's bigoted words

Sen. Rick Santorum, the chairman of the Senate Republican Conference and No. 3 in the GOP national leadership, has revealed his own bigotry against gays and lesbians in his recent comments comparing consensual sex between gay men to incest, polygamy, bigamy and adultery.
Commenting to the Associated Press on the Supreme Court case involving two gay men that challenges a Texas law against sodomy, Sen. Santorum said, "If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything. All those things are antithetical to a healthy, stable, traditional family."
It is no surprise to many people that another leader of the Republican Party holds retrograde, bigoted opinions of people who do not fit into the mainstream of America.
It is one more example of how the Republican Party has not changed at the core, despite its rhetoric.
But unlike the case of Sen. Trent Lott, who glorified the days of racial segregation in his comments late last year, the Santorum comments are not bringing anywhere near the level of condemnation from fellow Republicans.
President Bush has said nothing. Fellow Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, a moderate Republican, has defended Sen. Santorum, saying he is not a bigot. Sen. Bill Frist, the so-called compassionate conservative who took over the Senate leadership after Sen. Lott's fall, is also noticeably silent.
Thankfully, leading Democrats have spoken up about how hurtful and bigoted Sen. Santorum's comments are to law-abiding gay men and lesbians and to a mostly heterosexual public that does not support discrimination against this minority.
"The White House speaks the rhetoric of compassionate conservatism, but they're silent while their chief lieutenants make divisive and hurtful comments that have no place in our politics," said Sen. John F. Kerry, the Democratic presidential contender.
He added, "Every day in our country, gay and lesbian Americans get up, go to work, pay their taxes, support their families and contribute to the nation they love. These comments take us backwards in America."
U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, an openly gay member of Congress, noted that Sen. Santorum's comments are not some slip of the tongue, but are carefully crafted to appeal to a right-wing base of support in the same way that Sen. Lott's comments were a code to reassure racists.
But unlike Sen. Lott, Sen. Santorum makes no apology for his bigoted comments.
"I don't need to give an apology," he told the New York Times.
He should not be free to unapologetically spout this hateful language in our society and remain a leader in the GOP. But until more people speak up against his bigotry and more of his fellow Republicans do, it will continue.
National opposition to bigotry against gays and lesbians has not reached the same level as national opposition to racism. One day it, too, will be seen as dead wrong.


This story appeared on Page A14 of The Standard-Times on April 24, 2003.
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