Photo: Rick Santorum. Credit: Gage Skidmore/flickr.
Former Pennsylvania senator and GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum said he does not know if being gay is a choice, but pointed to those who identify as ex-gay as evidence that some people have changed their sexual orientations.
In the second part of a two-part interview on The Rachel Maddow Show, Santorum sparred with MSNBC host Rachel Maddow over a variety of issues, including the role of the Supreme Court, whether Congress could overturn a decision legalizing marriage equality, and his previous comments on same-sex marriage. Maddow asked Santorum whether people choose to be gay, at which point Santorum hedged, saying he did not know, but he suspects there are a number of reasons influencing whether someone is gay.
“If it’s an immutable characteristic — you don’t know if it’s immutable or not?” Maddow asked.
“I don’t know,” Santorum responded, noting that, if homosexuality is found to be immutable, it raises other issues such as sex-selective abortions. “If you determine that one of your children is gay, shall we pass a law saying you can’t abort a child because you found out that child’s gonna be gay? You can’t abort a child because you found out that child is a woman?”
Maddow again pressed him to answer the question: “Do you think that some people choose to be gay?”
“There are people who are alive today who identified themselves as gay and lesbian and who no longer are,” Santorum said. “I’ve met people in that case. So I guess maybe in that case, maybe they did.”
“You think people can choose to be heterosexual?” Maddow said. “You chose to–“
“All I’m saying is I do know people who have lived a gay lifestyle, and no longer live it,” Santorum replied.
“Do you believe it can be orchestrated, like you can make a person not gay anymore?” Maddow asked.
“I don’t spend a whole lot of time thinking about these things, to be honest,” he said.
Throughout the interview, Santorum defended his conservative opposition to marriage equality, arguing that the Supreme Court, over the years, has made decisions on LGBT rights that were not constitutionally-based and open the door to other issues, such as whether plural marriage is legal. Maddow brought up Santorum’s infamous comments from 2003 likening same-sex marriage to “man on dog” relations, which Santorum made when arguing in favor of keeping in place the sodomy laws that were overturned by the Supreme Court in the case of Lawrence v. Texas. Maddow eventually elicited a partial apology from the former senator.
“I’m saying that people will make arguments for consensual activity,” Santorum said, initially defending his comments.
“Why did you say the word ‘dog’?” Maddow asked.
“I was quoting Justice White in his 1986 decision, and that’s why I was referring to his opinion that that was the majority opinion at the time,” Santorum said.
“You see how it hurt gay people to put it that way?” Maddow asked.
“Trust me, I wish I had never said that,” Santorum answered. “It was a flippant comment, made to a reporter who, in my opinion, was not being particularly professional in her interview. But that’s not an excuse for me. I take responsibility for what I said.”
Maddow then asked whether he regretted the comment, to which Santorum responded, “Absolutely, I regret it. It was a flippant comment that never should have come out of my mouth, but the substance of what I said, which is what I’ve referred to, I stand by that…. I wish I hadn’t said it.”
See Maddow’s interview with Santorum below (Video credit: MSNBC).
Two college students in Indonesia have been sentenced to be publicly caned for engaging in same-sex relations.
The couple, aged 24 and 18, were arrested on November 7, 2024, after neighborhood vigilantes in the city of Banda Aceh, who suspected them of being gay, broke into their rented room to find them naked and hugging each other.
The lead judge, Sakwanah, said that the two students were "legally and convincingly" proven to have had gay sex -- which is forbidden under Sharia law -- and would thus be caned, receiving 85 and 80 lashes, respectively.
"During the trial it was proven that the defendants committed illicit acts, including kissing and having sex," she said. "As Muslims, the defendants should uphold the Sharia law that prevails in Aceh."
Republicans in nine states are calling for the overturn of marriage equality.
In Idaho, Michigan, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota, lawmakers have introduced resolutions demanding the U.S. Supreme Court reverse its landmark 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, in which the court struck down all existing state-level same-sex marriage bans.
Last month, the Idaho House of Representatives voted 46-24 to approve one such resolution, asking the nation's highest court to "restore the natural definition of marriage, a union of one man and one woman."
While the resolution is non-binding and doesn't require the Supreme Court to take action, Republican lawmakers see it as a "messaging" bill that expresses their extreme displeasure with same-sex marriage.
Muhsin Hendricks, the world's first imam to publicly come out as gay in 1996, was shot dead in South Africa on February 15 in what appears to be an ambush. Eastern Cape provincial police confirmed that the 58-year-old was killed in a possible targeted hate crime.
According to police, Hendricks and a driver were inside a gold Volkswagen T-Roc SUV in Bethelsdorp when a silver Hilux double cab stopped in front of the car, blocking its way. Two unknown suspects, their faces covered, exited the cab and fired multiple shots at the VW before fleeing the scene. The driver, who survived the attack, realized that Hendricks had been killed by gunfire.
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Former Pennsylvania senator and GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum said he does not know if being gay is a choice, but pointed to those who identify as ex-gay as evidence that some people have changed their sexual orientations.
In the second part of a two-part interview on The Rachel Maddow Show, Santorum sparred with MSNBC host Rachel Maddow over a variety of issues, including the role of the Supreme Court, whether Congress could overturn a decision legalizing marriage equality, and his previous comments on same-sex marriage. Maddow asked Santorum whether people choose to be gay, at which point Santorum hedged, saying he did not know, but he suspects there are a number of reasons influencing whether someone is gay.
“If it’s an immutable characteristic — you don’t know if it’s immutable or not?” Maddow asked.
“I don’t know,” Santorum responded, noting that, if homosexuality is found to be immutable, it raises other issues such as sex-selective abortions. “If you determine that one of your children is gay, shall we pass a law saying you can’t abort a child because you found out that child’s gonna be gay? You can’t abort a child because you found out that child is a woman?”
Maddow again pressed him to answer the question: “Do you think that some people choose to be gay?”
“There are people who are alive today who identified themselves as gay and lesbian and who no longer are,” Santorum said. “I’ve met people in that case. So I guess maybe in that case, maybe they did.”
“You think people can choose to be heterosexual?” Maddow said. “You chose to–“
“All I’m saying is I do know people who have lived a gay lifestyle, and no longer live it,” Santorum replied.
“Do you believe it can be orchestrated, like you can make a person not gay anymore?” Maddow asked.
“I don’t spend a whole lot of time thinking about these things, to be honest,” he said.
Throughout the interview, Santorum defended his conservative opposition to marriage equality, arguing that the Supreme Court, over the years, has made decisions on LGBT rights that were not constitutionally-based and open the door to other issues, such as whether plural marriage is legal. Maddow brought up Santorum’s infamous comments from 2003 likening same-sex marriage to “man on dog” relations, which Santorum made when arguing in favor of keeping in place the sodomy laws that were overturned by the Supreme Court in the case of Lawrence v. Texas. Maddow eventually elicited a partial apology from the former senator.
“I’m saying that people will make arguments for consensual activity,” Santorum said, initially defending his comments.
“Why did you say the word ‘dog’?” Maddow asked.
“I was quoting Justice White in his 1986 decision, and that’s why I was referring to his opinion that that was the majority opinion at the time,” Santorum said.
“You see how it hurt gay people to put it that way?” Maddow asked.
“Trust me, I wish I had never said that,” Santorum answered. “It was a flippant comment, made to a reporter who, in my opinion, was not being particularly professional in her interview. But that’s not an excuse for me. I take responsibility for what I said.”
Maddow then asked whether he regretted the comment, to which Santorum responded, “Absolutely, I regret it. It was a flippant comment that never should have come out of my mouth, but the substance of what I said, which is what I’ve referred to, I stand by that…. I wish I hadn’t said it.”
See Maddow’s interview with Santorum below (Video credit: MSNBC).
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