After Rick Santorum held rallies Friday
in Arlington Heights, outside Chicago, police received reports of
signs vandalized with anti-gay slurs.
Santorum addressed supporters at John
Hersey High School and Christian Liberty Academy.
About 50 protesters from the Facebook
group Carmel
Catholic Alumni Against Rick Santorum protested the GOP
presidential candidate's anti-gay views outside the Christian Liberty
Academy.
“We feel it is important to counter
Santorum's anti-gay hate, to set an example to students,” Matt
Muchowski told the Algonquin
Patch. “Rick sends a message of bullying, but we want high
school students to know that other alumni send a message of
equality.”
Inside the rally, two men were ejected
for kissing each other. Fifteen minutes into Santorum's speech, the
men got the attention of the crowd and began to kiss. They were
ejected from the rally by guards as the crowd, estimated at 2,100,
chanted “U-S-A.”
Timothy Tross of Lombard and Ben
Clifford of Algonquin, declined to say whether they were a gay
couple.
“I don't think the message should be
about what my sexuality is,” Tross told the site, which is owned by
AOL. “It's the message that he's saying about sexuality that
matters.”
According to The
Cardinal, Arlington Heights and Prospect police received
reports of signs vandalized with anti-gay slurs. One “Stop” sign
was altered to read “Stop gays,” while a “No Parking” sign
was scrawled with “Fuck gays.”