Rick Santorum on Sunday said gay rights
are not the same as civil rights.
During an appearance on Fox News
Sunday, Santorum told host Chris Wallace that sexual orientation
is not an immutable characteristic like the color of a person's skin.
While discussing Santorum's opposition
to allowing gay and bisexual troops to serve openly, Wallace asked
Santorum if he agreed with the tenets behind a quote from Colonel
E.R. Householder. Santorum reluctantly agreed.
“The Army is not a sociological
laboratory. Experimenting with Army policy, especially in a time of
war, would pose a danger to efficiency, discipline and morale and
would result in ultimate defeat,” Wallace read.
Wallace then told Santorum that
Householder was arguing against the integration of the military in
1941.
“That's very, very different,”
Santorum said. “We're talking about people who are different
simply because of the color of their skin, not because of activities
that would cause problems for people living in those close quarters.”
“I know the whole gay community is
trying to make this the new civil rights act, it's not. It's not the
same. You are black by the color of your skin. You are not
homosexual … obviously by the color of your skin.”
“Being black and being gay is the
same is simply not true. There are all sorts of studies out there
that suggest just the contrary. And there are people who were gay
and lived the gay lifestyle and aren't anymore. I don't think that's
the case for anybody who is black,” Santorum added. (The video is
embedded in the right panel of this page.)
(Related: Rick
Santorum supports rights of gay Iranians.)