Missing the Point

28 April 2003


Senator Santorum's Muddled Thinking on Gays

Senator Phil Santorum (R-PA) got himself into some hot water over comments he made about a pending case that may result in the courts throwing out a Texas law making sodomy a criminal act. In his anti-gay hysteria, his confusion over morality and legality became howlingly apparent. While calls for his resignation will probably go unheeded, a high school vocabulary course is probably in order.

For the record, here is what he said as quoted by the AP and CNN: "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." He added, "I have no problem with homosexuality. I have a problem with homosexual acts."

Bigamy and polygamy have nothing to do with sex, but are restictions on contracts -- one person cannot have more than one such contract at a time. Incest almost always includes an under-age individual, and so is the same a statutory rape, already a crime. Adultery may not be a right, but it is not a crime.

As for the difference between homosexuals and the acts they perform, he is struggling to adopt the Christian attitude of loving the sinner while hating the sin. Yet homosexuality, unlike race, is largely defined by human acts. While at a certain level a celebate gay is still gay, in practical terms with which society and the legal system must deal, celebacy makes sexual-orientation a moot point.

Like most ideologues left or right, Mr. Santorum fails to distinguish between what is legal and what is right. It is legal to be a narrow-minded, self-righteous blowhard, but that doesn't make it right.