Santorum Blames American Downfall on Gay Agenda in Colleges

According to Santorum, pop culture and colleges have ruined America.

BY MICHELLE GARCIA

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Former senator and Republican presidential contender Rick Santorum blamed the decline of America on indoctrinating the gay agenda in colleges across the country and the media.
“If you look at popular culture and what comes out of Hollywood, if you go to our schools and particularly our colleges and universities, they are indoctrinating in a sea of relativism and a sea of antagonism toward Christianity — religion in general, but Christianity in particular,” Santorum said, according to Right Wing Watch. He was a guest on “Washington Watch,” a radio show hosted by Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council. 
Perkins did, however, chime in to add that his Bible-owning third grade teacher regularly punished her students with a yardstick. “But that was…Before Repressive Government, back when God was still welcome in our schools,” Perkins said. 

Santorum Is Bad for LGBT Adults, Worse for LGBT Youth

Would President Rick Santorum put the lives of LGBT youth in even greater jeopardy? Writer Joseph Ward says yes.

By Joseph Ward

SANTORUM CAMPAIGN X390 (GETTY) | ADVOCATE.COM

Over the last few weeks, the Republican race for president has been watched apathetically by many Americans, but Rick Santorum continues to shake things up with unexpected wins, courting “very conservative” Republican voters as his core strategy. While his rise may provide for interesting punditry across the media and rile up conservative Christians, it has also caused considerable anxiety and concern among moderate voters and many within the Christian community. That’s because Santorum stakes his candidacy on an old ideological framework that stereotypically pits people of faith against their LGBT neighbors. This rhetoric is not only damaging to many families and children, but it grossly misrepresents America’s religious community.

The Public Religion Research Institute recently showed that majorities of religious groups in the U.S. are actually supportive of the LGBT community, including their right to marry. The faith-LGBT dynamic in our culture is shifting, and as the research institute’s CEO, Robby Jones, notes, “assumptions about battle lines between secular proponents and religious foes no longer hold.”

Click the link above to read the full article.

Santorum Booed by New Hamphsire College Students on Gay Marriage

by Karen Ocamb

Antigay Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum was booed during an exchange with a group of college students in Concord, N.H., over the same-sex marriage. New Hampshire is one of six states where marriage between same sex couples is legal.

Santorum said “230 years marriage has been between one man and woman. So if you want to change the law … you have to make the positive argument about why.” Once again, he compared marriage equality to polygamy. Buzzfeed reports on 17-year-old Rhiannon Pyle who challenged the candidate.

Click the link above to watch the video.

Rick Santorum Has Pity and Prayers for Glitter-Bomber

By Lucas Grindley

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Rick Santorum pities the man who glitter-bombed him during a campaign stop in Iowa last week, he told a radio host today.

“I feel sorry for that man that he felt like he was compelled he had to do that,” Santorum said, according to TheHuffington Post’s report on the interview. “Like I do, what I’m supposed to do, is you know, according to our faith, is to pray for them, and I hope people work that out.”

Glitter-bombing has spread as a way to protest antigay views, with Santorum and others left covered in handfuls of sparkly paper bits. But the practice got a heated response from the radio show’s conservative host, Jan Mickelson.

“When I saw that guy do that to you, I just wish I had been there,” Mickelson told Santorum, according to TheHuffington Post. He didn’t explain what he’d have done but did call out “the gay lobby” for Google-bombing Santorum. Results on the search engine surface an alternate definition of the candidate’s last name that has been propagated by activists, starting with Dan Savage, who was outraged by the candidate’s comparison of gay sex to bestiality and pedophilia.

“I’m not encouraging people to do this, but if you ever want to see hate, just enter Rick Santorum’s name on the Internet,” Mickelson said. “If there ever was an example of seething, satanic, wicked hatred directed toward a decent person, it’s that.”

The glitter-bombing comes in response to a long history of antigay statements, including Santorum’s most recent pronouncement that, if elected president, he would seek to invalidate the marriages of thousands of same-sex couples who had already wed.

Click the link above to watch the video.

Santorum Very Nearly Wins, Did Being Antigay Help?

By Lucas Grindley

RICK SANTORUM IN IOWA ELECTION SPEECH 390x (GETTY) ADVOCATE.COM
Rick Santorum

Mitt Romney was declared winner of the Iowa caucuses in a photo finish. But the LGBT community may not have escaped the Rick Santorum surge in polls as Iowans delivered a come-from-way-behind surge on Tuesday and perhaps propelled his antigay agenda onto the national stage.

Networks had dubbed the race “too close to call” but late in the night Romney was announced by the Iowa GOP as the winner of a three-way race to the finish that ended with him beating Santorum by a mere eight votes, both with 25% of the vote. Ron Paul finished third with 21%.

Santorum rode a wave of enthusiasm in recent polls that followed his sudden rise from single digits to a reported 15% in the most recent Des Moines Register poll, which is well regarded for its accuracy predicting how Republican caucuses will unfold. The poll was taken over four days from December 27 to 30, and during the first two days Santorum averaged 10% but doubled that number in the last two days of the survey.

The Register poll found that more than 40% were still open to changing their minds, then NBC reported on Tuesday that its entrance polling found 31% of people who made their decision on the day of the caucuses went for Santorum.

Click the link above to read the full article.

Rick Santorum Wants to Invalidate Your Marriage

By Diane Anderson-Minshall

RICK SANTORUM 201103 (GETTY) | ADVOCATE.COM

While Rick Santorum continues to jostle for third place in the Iowa polls, his recent remarks on MSNBC are making Mitt Romney look positively progressive. While Romney suggested a three-tier system for marriage (which would allow existing same-sex marriages to be recognized but forbid future ones from happening), Santorum told Chuck Todd that marriage “marriage has to be one thing for everybody. We can’t have 50 different marriage laws in this country, you have to have one marriage law.”

And of those same-sex marriages that are currently legal? “Well, their marriage would be invalid,” Santorum said. “I think if the constitution says ‘marriage is this,’ then people whose marriage is not consistent with the constitution… I’d love to think there’s another way of doing it.”

According to Think Progress, Santorum, also likened same-sex marriages to having an aunt or a friend, said that he supports a federal constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and invalidating all currently legal same-sex unions, and that “same-sex couples can contract for everything” except government benefits.

Click the link above to watch the video and read the complete article.

Surgin’ Santorum The Latest Victim Of Glitterbombing Epidemic

Source: AP via Raw Story

Frothy candidate Rick Santorum is practically orgasmic over his bump in the polls before this week’s Iowa caucus. Thankfully there was someone to take the wind out of his shorts.

On Friday night, an unnamed man went up to Santorum and shook his hand. Seconds later he pelted the ex-senator with glitter and shouted, “Stop the hate! Taste the rainbow!”

Click the link above to watch the video.

Santorum Gets Iowa Right-Wingers’ Endorsement

By Trudy Ring

RICK SANTORUM 20110811 X390 (GETTY) | ADVOCATE.COM

Two influential Iowa antigay activists have chosen their preferred Republican presidential candidate — former U.S. senator Rick Santorum.

Bob Vander Plaats, CEO of Family Leader, and Chuck Hurley, president of its education division, the Iowa Family Policy Center, announced their endorsement of Santorum at a press conference this morning in Urbandale and called on other conservative candidates to unite, The Des Moines Register reports. However, Family Leader as an organization will remain neutral — an indication of the division among the right wing over which GOP hopeful to support in the Iowa presidential caucus, which takes place January 3.

Santorum, Texas governor Rick Perry, and Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann are the favorites of the right, and polls indicate each is supported by about 10% of Iowa Republicans. Hurley, without naming names, said socially conservative candidates should “team up,” according to the Register.

“Why can’t the top three or so pro-family candidates come together and figure out who has the talents for president, who has the talents for other roles?” Hurley said. “And those people could quickly … vaunt into first place and win the caucuses and win the nomination.”

Far-right leaders, the Register notes, are worried that if social conservatives’ votes are divided among several candidates, it could result in a caucus win for former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, who by their standards is a moderate. As an indicator of the intense competition, Hurley said one activist had threatened to “burn [Vander Plaats’s] body, drag it through the streets, and hang it from a bridge” if he didn’t support the person’s chosen candidate. Hurley did not say who the candidate was.

Vander Plaats had much praise for Santorum, who represented Pennsylvania in the Senate and has a long history of antigay and anti-abortion stances. “I believe Rick Santorum comes from us,” Vander Plaats said at the press conference, according to Politico.“Not to us. He comes from us. He is one of us.” Hurley added that Santorum “meets and exceeds the biblical qualifications” for endorsement by conservative Christians.

Santorum welcomed the endorsement, releasing a statement saying it “will be a terrific catalyst for our campaign as we continue building momentum in Iowa,” Politico reports.

Meanwhile, a national antigay group, the American Family Association, has endorsed Newt Gingrich for president. Read more here.

Rick Santorum Blames Plummeting Marriage Rates on Gays

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Rick Santorum blamed gays for plummeting marriage rates in a bizarre tweet reacting to a Pew poll.

Think Progress LGBT notes:

“Today, barely half of Americans over the age 18 are married. But Pew attributes the decline not to same-sex marriage — which would actually increase rates — but a combination of factors including: the social acceptance of cohabitation, a greater emphasis on higher education and career development, and the desire to develop financial independence before tying the knot.”

Rick Santorum Accuses Obama of Tying 'Gay Lifestyles' to Foreign Aid

Rick Santorum spoke out against Obama’s memorandum issued earlier today directing the heads of Executive Departments and Agencies abroad to advance the human rights of and ensure the safety of LGBT people, CNN reports.

R_santorumSaid Santorum:

“I would suggest that we give out humanitarian aid based on humanitarian need, not based on whether people are promoting their particular agenda. Obviously the administration is promoting their particular agenda in this country, and now they feel its their obligation to promote those values not just in the military, not just in our society, but now around the world with taxpayer dollars…He said he’s for traditional marriage, and now he’s promoting gay lifestyles and gay rights, and he’s fighting against traditional marriage within the courts, and I think he needs to be honest.”

Rick Perry also blasted the memo earlier today.

The right-wing extremist Liberty Counsel is also enraged:

The announced policy, according to Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel Action, “displays the arrogance of the Obama administration.”

It is “frankly offensive,” says the attorney, that President Obama “feels compelled to export American culture’s decline in morality, and export that immorality to other nations that are trying to adhere to traditional principles relative to human sexuality.”

Barber also notes that the administration is apparently ignoring the fact that foreign nations — like the United States — are sovereign countries. He adds that the U.S. is “using essentially blackmail and the purse strings” of the nation to force countries to change their moral principles.

Perry, Santorum Denounce Call for Global Gay Rights

By Trudy Ring

RICK PERRY SANTORUM X390 (GETTY) | ADVOCATE.COM
Perry, Santorum

To Republican presidential aspirant Rick Perry, using U.S. foreign aid to prevent persecution and even execution of LGBT people amounts to “promoting special rights for gays.” To Rick Santorum, another member of the GOP field, it’s promoting an agenda.

Perry issued a statement on his campaign website denouncing the landmark program unveiled by President Obama’s administration today, under which the U.S. will not withhold aid from countries that persecute gays but will assist LGBT rights organizations in those nations in fighting back.

(RELATED: Read our coverage of the speech here)

Click the link above to read the full article.

Santorum: Gay Sex Is Not Equal To Straight Sex

by David Badash

 

Post image for Santorum: Gay Sex Is Not Equal To Straight Sex
Rick Santorum yesterday revealed a shocking side to his anti-​gay bigotry. Santorum, still struggling in the polls a Newt Gingrich surges ahead, told a group of about 100 Dordt College students in Sioux Center, Iowa, that the reason he is opposed to same-​sex marriage is because gay sex is not equal to straight sex.

Santorum was asked about marriage equality by Jason Kornelis, a 23-​year-​old graduate of the small Christian college that hosted Michele Bachmann earlier this year. ABC News characterized the exchange as “tense.”

Click the link above to read the full article.

Santorum: Civil laws on same-sex marriage must comport with God’s law | LGBTQNATION.com

GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum, staying laser focused on his anti-gay platform, told Iowa voters this week that civil laws relating to same-sex marriage must “comport with God’s law.”

Appearing at a rally in Marshalltown, Iowa, on Tuesday, Santorum said that “God who gave us rights also gave us a responsibility and laws by which our civil laws have to comport with. A higher law. God’s law.”

“I’ve been out there doing that. I’ve been out there fighting these battles again on religious liberty because those two institutions — the church and the family — and those are the things that will suffer most if gay marriage is put in place,” he said.

Santorum fought back against critics that claim he is too extreme to be president, and spoke of himself as the leader of moral issues among the presidential candidates.

“There is nobody in that goes out and talks about the moral issues more than I do.” he said.

Recent Iowa polling reveals that just 5 percent of Republican caucus-goers would select Santorum as their first choice.

Click the link above to watch the video.

Santorum: Marriage Will Fix The Economy | thenewcivilrightsmovement.com

by David Badash

Rick Santorum today told Fox News’ Megyn Kelly that poverty rates decrease when you look at two-​parent households in relation to single-​parent households, so, naturally, everyone should marry to fix the economy. Except, of course, gays. (He didn’t say that, but you know he was thinking it.) Santorum, who is running for president, doesn’t have a financial plan or a jobs plan on his website — in fact, aside from a “donate” button and a “subscribe” button, and a news RSS feed, it doesn’t look like his website has anything on it — but that’s not going to stop Rick from coming up with biblically-​approved strategies for how to “fight for America,” as his site says.

(Of course, marriage will not fix the economy.)

Kate Conway at Political Correction offers this video and transcript, and a few thoughts:

SANTORUM: If you look at my speech, I mean, I talk about the role that values plays in our economy. I mean, if you look at the strength of the family in America, that’s— it’s one of the — If you want to snap your finger and change things in America to eliminate poverty, the best way to do it is to go from families where there are two parents in the home as opposed to one. The poverty rate among parents, when there are two parents in the home instead of one is 5 percent with two parents, 30 percent with one.

So, should we have policies that encourage fathers to take responsibility for their children, that nurtures and actually supports people in relationships so they— so they can not have children out of wedlock, or help them through a difficult situation with respect to divorce. … You know, we have a president out there talking about obesity. Yeah, obesity’s a problem, but family stability and strong marriages and families and reducing the out-​of-​wedlock birthrate, you want to turn this economy around that will do that as much as any tax plan or spending plan.