Wednesday, May 7, 2003

Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), is now facing charges of "gay bashing" based on a statement he made regarding a pending Supreme Court case on the Texas sodomy law.

The quote as published by the Associated Press says, "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."

Gay rights groups, and Democrats looking for any political advantage, have used the quote to say that the senator equates homosexuality with polygamy, incest and adultery.

What these well-educated (?) people seem to overlook is that the senator never used the word "gay" in his quote. As is custom for many reporters in this age, the reporter added "(gay)" in parentheses as a method of explaining to the reader the unsaid true intent of the speaker, or the intent of the speaker as perceived by the reporter.

In this case the reporter, not the senator, made the association of homosexuality with the acts actually described by the senator. Maybe the reporter simply believed that any Republican senator would be a homophobe. Maybe the reporter knew that the addition of one little word could make a much better story. Who knows?

The gay rights community continually stresses that people should not be judged on perceptions, but on their words and deeds. The same standard should be used in judging Sen. Santorum, but with his actual deeds and words.

Steve Justice

Tyrone