Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum has a thing about gay people - he doesn't like them.
Or, more accurately, he doesn't like the things they do. Like, ask to get married. Or to be able to tell if they're asked in the military. Or, - well, - you know. Gay things. Like raise children.
And he feels really, really, strongly about it.This isn't something new with Santorum. As far back as 2003, Santorum famously delivered a contorted "explanation" of his position, that has haunted him ever since. In a recorded interview with an AP reporter, he said:
"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. It is one thing."
But Santorum seems determined to continue to make it a campaign issue.
The Los Angeles Times reported how he gotemotional just this past Friday as he told an audience of private boarding school students (including three with gay parents) that only a man and woman should be able to marry.
"Marriage is not a right," he said. "It's a privilege that is given to society by society for a reason. ... Wewant to encourage what is the best for children."
Letting a gay couple raise children, Santorum went on to say, is "robbing children of something they need, they deserve, they have a right to. You may rationalize that that isn't true, but in your own life and in your own heart, you know it's true."
Which raises the question, does he hate Ricky Martin?
The Livin' La Vida Loca star fathered twin boys with a surrogate mother in 2008, and has proudly raised them ever since.
Two years later, in what might have been a surprise to someone, he came out.
He expected the question of a gay man raising two boys might be a problem for some. In his 2010 memoir, he said, "There are people who say that this isn't fair, that in order to have balance, children need a mother and a father. And I say they are mistaken. How many millions of children grow up without a mother? ... How many millions of children grow up without a father?"
As for same-sex marriage? He defended it in an interview on Larry King Live, and then again just this month, after rumors began flying that he was thinking of marrying his longtime partner, Carlos Gonzalez Abella.
"We are not talking about it, we're not thinking about it," he told Latina magazine. "But I'm so happy that in Europe we have the option. It's amazing to think that we can say, 'I feel like it. I'm ready. Let's go.'"
So, no, Rick Santorum may not hate Ricky Martin. No more than he hates other gay people. But he sure hates the things Ricky Martin supports.
In fact, to his credit, during Saturday night's candidate debate, he said so.
"But just because you don't agree with someone's desire to change the law doesn't mean you don't like them or you hate them or you want to discriminate against them, but you're trying to promote -- excuse me, promote things that you think are best for society."
