Rick Santorum on Friday said he objects
to gay marriage because it would lead to the normalization of
“same-sex values.”
The 53-year-old Santorum made his
remarks during a presidential forum on education hosted by the
University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
Santorum told the students that the
legalization of gay marriage would expose the children of parents who
oppose homosexuality to gay relationships in the school curriculum.
“One of the impacts of same-sex
marriage is the normalization or inoculation of normalization of
same-sex values,” Santorum said.
Roughly 100 people attended the forum,
the Cedar
Falls Patch reported.
Santorum also criticized the federal
government's role in education.
“Education has been, since the
industrial revolution, very top down,” he said. “One hundred
years ago schools were basically run by parents and communities.
Now, the government needs to get in as soon as it can to influence
the educational lives of children.”
“President Obama doesn't know the
names of your children. How dare we say he knows what's best for
them?”
(Related: Rick
Santorum: gay marriage would deny kids a mother and a father.)