Rick Santorum, campaigning at the Community Christian Academy in Stuart, Florida, told a mother with a gay son that the government must not support her son’s unhealthy behavior — such as marrying and raising a family.
“There are certain things that government does that gives people privileges in order to promote activity that are healthy for society and are best for society, Santorum told the mother in the audience, the Palm Beach Post reported:
“And those things we promote would give people advantages or benefits, government benefits because we think that is healthy activity. Mothers and fathers coming together, forming healthy marriages, having children and raising those children. Every American child has the right, and the government should support the right to have and know their mother and father and be raised by their mother and father.”
Santorum called President Obama, “King George III reincarnated,†saying Obama wants to tell Americans what they can and cannot do.
Note the hypocrisy of Santorum, wanting to tell LGBT Americans what they can and cannot do, while he rails against President Obama — whom he called “the worst president this country has ever seen” — and falsely claiming the President wants to tell all Americans what they can and cannot do.
Igor Volsky at Think Progress notes,
In excluding gay people from his definition of “healthy marriages†and families, the former Pennsylvania senator is ignoring the 2 million children who are currently living with LGBT parents, and is instead relying on the preposterous gay-people-are-a-public-health-risk arguments that are perpetuated by some of the nation’s most ardent anti-gay organizations (and Santorum supporters). The stigma this kind of rhetoric perpetuates undermines the many gay and lesbian people who are eager to enter into marriages, raise children, and receive all of the legal rights and responsibilities that opposite-sex couples enjoy.
WPBF has the video.