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Lessons from the
Santorum Affair
Sen. Rick Santorum’s
(R-Pa.) comparison of homosexuality to bigamy, incest, and bestiality, and
President Bush’s subsequent support for the GOP Senate leader as
“inclusive” offer important lessons about the party that rules the White
House and both houses of Congress.
First, as a president who
met with gay groups both before and after his election, George W. Bush has
courted the support of gay people and their moderate allies. Those who have
been persuaded by his public stance should now know what he does and does
not mean. The president is not moving steadily to a more moderate position
on gay concerns. Rather, he is performing a balancing act—one day getting
Patricia Ware, the homophobic executive director of the President’s AIDS
Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, fired or scuttling the Christian right’s
attempt in Congress to block condom distribution in Africa; another day
backing up the incredibly gay-hostile Santorum and praising his performance
as the third-ranking member of the Republican leadership in the Senate.
Neither gay Republicans nor Christian conservatives are going to win the
battle for the heart and mind of the president. For Bush, “inclusive”
means trying to keep both groups pacified.
The only indication the
president gave that he recognizes the harmful import of Santorum’s
comments is that he did not defend them, although he did support the man by
characterizing him as inclusive—a virtue the senator obviously doesn’t
have. Perhaps Bush was trying to signal to gays and moderates that the White
House is committed to a broad-based administration. Or maybe he was trying
to tell Santorum that he hopes the senator will become inclusive and avoid
creating public relations problems in the future. But that is a rather small
crumb to throw to such gay GOP groups as the Log Cabin Republicans and the
Republican Unity Coalition, who have stuck out their necks and wallets on
behalf of this president.
There is one bright side,
however. It was only five years ago that Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott
(R-Miss.) insulted gay people by suggesting that we should not be hated, but
provided treatment, like “alcoholics and kleptomaniacs.” There was, of
course, an outcry, but Lott’s antigay gaffe provoked far less denunciation
from straight politicos and less attention from the news media than
Santorum’s has today, when some commentators have made his statements a
major story.
One
reason why there is more uproar over Santorum this year than when Lott made
his antigay statement is that, in just five years, the nation’s gay
community has grown in public acceptance and political success. Consider
that in late 1997, shortly before Sen. Lott likened us to drunks and
compulsive pilferers, there were some 127 openly gay elected officials in
this country; today, there are 243. In 1998, 103 local governments across
the nation had outlawed antigay job discrimination; today, that number is
152. And in 1998, only 55 local jurisdictions provided health-insurance
coverage for same-sex domestic partners; today, that number has risen to
more than 140. If we keep up this rate of progress, insulting antigay
statements by prominent politicians may become increasingly unacceptable,
even for conservative Republicans.
Hastings Wyman publishes Southern Political Report, a
nonpartisan biweekly political newsletter. He may be reached in care of
Letters from CAMP Rehoboth or at
HWymanSPR@aol.com.
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