Former Rick Santorum aide Robert
Traynham has defended his old boss's anti-gay rhetoric.
Traynham, who was outed as gay in 2005,
appeared on Thursday's episode of MSNBC's
Hardball.
In discussing Santorum's 2003
controversial remarks linking gay sex to “man on dog,” Traynham
insisted that Santorum's only disagreement was with giving gay
couples the right to marry.
“Doesn't he go further and say that
you should not be allowed to be gay in any actual way?” host Chris
Matthews asked.
“Oh absolutely not. No. Absolutely
not,” Traynham responded
“I worked for him for ten years. I
was openly out to him. I never, ever heard him say anything remotely
like that at all,” he said.
Traynham added that the gay community
was opposed to Santroum because “he speaks passionately about the
fact that he believes gays and lesbians should not marry. He
believes in the sanctity of marriage. He believes that marriage
should be defined by one man and one woman. And that's obviously
something that runs counter to folks that are like me who happen to
fall in love with someone of the same sex. That is a major, major
disagreement that a lot of gays and lesbians feel toward Senator
Santorum.”
Traynham added that he does not know
Santorum's position on gay and bisexual troops serving openly in the
military. Santorum
has said that he would work to reinstate “Don't Ask, Don't Tell,”
if elected president.
And he told CNN anchor John King this
week that gay
people should remain celibate.