Another one for the “Shit You Can’t Make Up” file. In an interview with Rick “Frothy Mix” Santorum, Don Lemon asked him if he has any gay friends. Santorum replied that yes, of course he has gay friends. So not only is he totally not a homophobe now, but he’s palling around with gay people in his spare time. Isn’t that what they all say?
Don Lemon: Do you have any gay friends?
Santorum: Yeah, in fact, I have had gay people work with me.
Don Lemon: You know, people say, “I have black friends.”
Santorum: In fact, I was with a gay friend of mine just yesterday. So yeah, I do. And they respect that I have differences of opinion on that, I talk about these things in front of them, and we have conversations about it. They differ from me, but they know I love them because they’re my friends.
I don’t think anybody actually believes Santorum has any out and proud gay friends. Nor do I think anybody needs a review of Santorum’s vile, vicious anti-gay record. But, given these comments, I have to go there. Maybe one of Santorum’s “gay friends” is reading.
From April 2003:
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…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.
From May 2008:
Is anyone saying same-sex couples can’t love each other? I love my children. I love my friends, I love my brother. Heck, I even love my mother-in-law. Should we call these relationships marriage, too?
From December 2010:
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was not about men and women serving in the military. Men and women who are gays and lesbians can serve in the military right now. That’s not the issue. The issue is…the secularization of our society. It’s a larger issue about the left trying to put the government in control of this country, trying to remove faith, trying to remove any people of faith and religion out of the public square, trying to transform what America is all about. And this is just one more step in the process.
From January 2011:
Interviewer: Two men or two women marrying each other – is that a violation of the natural law?
Santorum: I believe it is.
Interviewer: Should the state sanction that?
Santorum: Well, no.
Interviewer: If the state takes a child and sticks it into a same-sex couple and allows that same-sex couple to adopt that child, is the state violating the rights of that child?
Santorum: I would say that the state is doing a disservice to that child, but what I can say is that the state is not doing a service to the child and to society by not putting that child in a home where there is a mother and a father.
Interviewer: A disservice to society or to the child?
Santorum: Both. This is common sense. This is nature. And what we’re trying to do is defy nature because a certain group of people want to be affirmed by society, and I just don’t think that’s to the benefit of society or to the child.
From April 2011:
[Gays and lesbians] have the right to be able to – employment. I don't know what you mean by rights. What I'm talking about are privileges. Privileges of marriage, privileges of government benefits is a different thing than basic rights to live their lives as they well should and can as free Americans.
From May 2011:
Can you have good stock, solid family with a single parent? Yes you can…if you were getting on an airplane and you had a choice between two of them and one airplane would get you there 95 percent of the time and the other plane would get you there 85 percent of the time. What plane would you take?
[...]
A lesbian woman came up to me and said, ‘why are you denying me my right?’ I said, ‘well, because it’s not a right.’ It’s a privilege that society recognizes because society sees intrinsic value to that relationship over any other relationship.
From June 2011:
John King: Would a President Santorum push for a constitutional amendment as President Bush once proposed banning same-sex marriage?
Santorum: I support a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. I think that marriage should be a consistent thing across the country. Marriage is the union of one man and one woman. It’s essential for the family, it’s essential for the stability of our culture to make sure that children are given the best hope, which is a mom and a dad. And if we lower our sights for those children, we’re robbing children the potential of having a mom and a dad by changing the standard of what society believes in.
So…about that “gay friend” Rick Santorum was hanging out with a couple days ago. Does his name begin with “Chris” and end with “Barron”?