Rick Santorum on Tuesday announced he was suspending his bid for the GOP nomination for president. Santorum, who liked to promote himself as the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney, went from complaining that he never got any attention to becoming a viable alternative to Romney as many voters headed to the polls in many states.

Before entering the race, Santorum, a former senator from Pennsylvania, was best know for comparing gay sex to “man on dog,” and many have speculated that he held on as long as he did in an effort to rejigger Google's results. Yet, the site launched as a protest against Santorum's anti-gay views remains stubbornly near the top of the search giant's results.

Santorum's strategy was based on gaining momentum from an early win in Iowa, where, coincidentally, gay marriage remains a high priority for social conservatives angry over the 2009 Iowa Supreme Court decision legalizing the institution.

This is just the highlight reel of Santorum's rhetoric on gay rights during his campaign.

Opposes gay marriage because a paper towel is not a napkin: “I can call this napkin a paper towel. But it is a napkin. And why? Because it is what it is. Right? You can call it whatever you want, but it doesn't change the character of what it is. … Why? Because there are certain qualities and certain things that attach to the definition of what marriage is.”

Opposes gay marriage because a tree is not a car: “It's like going out and saying, 'That tree is a car.' Well, the tree's not a car. A tree's a tree. Marriage is marriage.”

Opposes gay marriage because a napkin is not a car and a paper towel is not a chair: “This is a napkin. A napkin is what a napkin is. It isn't a paper towel. It isn't a car. You can call a napkin a car, but it doesn't make it a car. You can call a paper towel a chair, but it doesn't make it a chair. Marriage is what marriage is. It existed before there was the English language or a state.”

Claims the gay community waged jihad against him over gay marriage: “The gay community said, 'He's comparing gay sex to incest and polygamy. How dare he do this.' And they have gone out on a, and I would argue, jihad against Rick Santorum since then.”

Says gay sex is a sin: “Of course, the Catholic Church teaches that homosexuality is a sin. I'm a Catholic and I subscribe to the Catholic Church's teaching.”

Obama shattered America's traditional values: “Our traditional values shattered,” the male announcer in the ad The Only One said as a bride walks down the aisle with the caption, “Obama praises New York on same-sex marriage.”

Calls DADT repeal a “tragic social experiment”: “What we are doing is playing social experimentation with our military right now – that's tragic. I would just say that going forward we would re-institute that policy, if Rick Santorum was president.”

Supports gay soldier Stephen Hill: “I condemn the people who booed that soldier. That soldier is serving our country. I thank him for our service to our country. I'm sure he's doing an excellent job.”

Supports rights of gay Iranians: “They're killing people because they're gay, which is a grave moral wrong.”

Pledges his life against gay marriage: “The battle we're engaged in right now is same-sex marriage, ultimately that is the very foundation of our country, the family, what the family structure is going to look like. I'll die on that hill.”

Claims gay people have equal rights: “I have nothing against gay people. They have rights of every other citizen.”

Would annul all marriages of gay couples: “Their marriages would be invalid. I think if the constitution says, 'Marriage is this,' then people whose marriage is not consistent with the constitution.”

Tired of being asked questions on gay rights: “I think I've answered that question probably more than any other candidate. On preoccupation with these questions with me can be a little trying after a while. I mean, I don't think you ask these questions of everybody else with the insistency that you do with me. And I understand the game. I mean, you know, you're trying to create, you know, the perception that this is what Rick Santorum talks about, because I get asked these questions all the time.”