The controversy that swirled around Senator Rick Santorum, R-Penn., and his comments on gays and the right to privacy lasted through several media cycles and appears to be dying out by the end of April.
That public debate illustrated both the continued second-class status of gays within the political process and American society, but also the remarkable advances that have occurred over the last several years. In 1988, Majority Leader Trent Lott's comparison of homosexuality to alcoholism and kleptomania raised barely a ripple in the mainstream media.
The cycle began with remarks that Santorum made in an interview with the Associated Press that was published April 22. He said of the Texas sodomy case now before the Court: '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 Human Rights Campaign led other organizations in condemning Santorum's remarks and called for him to step down from his third-ranking Republican leadership position in the Senate.
Democratic presidential candidates Howard Dean, John Kerry, and Joe Lieberman were among those taking the lead in condemning Santorum's remarks. A San Francisco TV station reported that a local HRC gathering with candidate John Edwards April 23 was closed to the press at the demand of the candidate, because he did not want to talk about Santorum.
Four moderate Republican Senators publicly urged Santorum to apologize for his remarks, though others reportedly urged that action behind the scenes. Majority Leader Bill Frist issued a statement saying that Santorum was 'a voice for inclusion and compassion ... to suggest otherwise is just politics.'
'Santorum is usually a good politician about meeting constituents and listening to concerns, but he never gave us anything, or if he did, it was certainly scraps,' said David Greer. He was president of Log Cabin Pennsylvania for several years.
Greer believes individual gay Republicans have supported Santorum, but the organization never gave him any money. A search for 'Log Cabin' of the Federal Election Commission records found no contributions by either the state or national groups.
For three days, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer fended off queries on Santorum and the sodomy case behind those comments. Finally, on April 25, he asserted that the Senator was 'an inclusive man.'
The statement was a finessing of intense political pressure from those on the social right associated with James Dobson and Focus on the Family to support both Santorum and 'the family,' and the pressure for 'inclusion' that came from Log Cabin Republicans and the broader American public.
Smith was not surprised and only mildly disappointed by the limited condemnation of Santorum by fellow Republicans. He said, 'You can look at the silence in a good way,' as Republicans not being comfortable with Santorum's remarks but unwilling to alienate their conservative base by speaking out.
And when Republicans did speak, they generally defended the man, not his ideas.
PUNDITS AND EDITORIALS
'It's obvious that [ Santorum ] is a moral fascist, and is becoming the voice of the American Taliban. He is one of the ever more strident family fanatics. What he misses, among many other things, is that society exists for the individual; the individual does not exist for society,' said long-time gay activist Frank Kameny.
'John F. Kennedy drew a distinction between his public role as president of a diverse country and his own private religious convictions, Santorum explicitly argues the opposite,' wrote gay conservative Andrew Sullivan on his blog. 'How can we have any hope of creating a democratic government in Iraq free from domination by repressive religion if we cannot free our own laws of official faith-based biases inflicted on our fellow citizens? '
'America does not need a sex police,' said Bill O'Reilly, perhaps the most popular conservative commentator today. 'It's a waste of time and resources.'
'The Ozzie and Harriet world he yearns for doesn't exist anymore, if it ever did,' editorialized the Baltimore Sun on April 23. 'Repeated divorce and remarriage, along with the public acknowledgement of gay relationships once kept in the shadows, have radically changed the composition of many families.'
Turning to the Texas case that prompted Santorum's comments in the first place, the Sun urged the Supreme Court to 'define some zone of private intimate behavior where moralizing politicians with no higher purpose than imposing their beliefs on the choices of others can no longer tread.'
In taking on Santorum's religious parallel of love the sinner, hate the sin, columnist Richard Cohen concluded, 'He does, I think, raise a profound question that he ought to answer himself: If you have the orientation of a moron, do you still have to talk like one?'
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Santorum was also under fire for a letter sent post-Sept. 11 asking for money for a nonprofit group lobbying against same-sex marriages. 'I know it may sound like a huge exaggeration, particularly in light of the attack on America, but this may truly be the most important letter I ever write you,' Santorum wrote.
