Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick
Santorum, a likely 2016 presidential candidate, said Sunday that he
was sorry to see Indiana's so-called religious freedom law changed to
include LGBT protections.
A strong backlash against the bill led
Republican Governor Mike Pence to ask lawmakers to rewrite the law to
include exceptions based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
(Related: Indiana,
Arkansas governors sign revised “religious freedom” bills.)
Appearing on Face the Nation,
Santorum said that he preferred the original bill which critics
argued would allow a business to refuse service to gay men and
lesbians based on religious beliefs.
“We aren't for discrimination against
any person,” Santorum
said. “No business should discriminate against who you are.
But it should have the ability to say we're not going to participate
in certain activities that we disagree with from a religious point of
view. I don't think frankly either bill does that, but the second
one, the one that Governor Pence backed away from, moves toward
that.”
“Tolerance is a two-way street,” he
added. “If you are a print shop and you are a gay man, should you
be forced to print 'God Hates Fags' [signs] for the Westboro Baptist
Church? Should the government force you to do that? That's what
these cases are all about … This is where I think we just need some
space to say, 'Let's have some tolerance.'”