I'll be frank. I'm tired of writing about Rick Santorum. But
the man just cut an incredible anti-gay streak across New Hampshire. Come on,
Rick, give the other guys a chance!
On Jan. 5 Santorum made the tired same-sex couples getting
marriage equals inevitable polygamy argument. Then the next day he told a town
hall meeting that marriage was "an essential good," which is why gays
can't have it since gays are, you know, essentially bad.
During a campaign speech on Jan. 7 at a private boarding
school (I didn't think that kids could vote, but then again maybe rich kids
can. Hell, at this point that would not surprise me at all) he actually told
the audience that they'd be better off with a dad in jail than with two
same-sex parents.
Mind you, he claimed that this "fact" came from an
unnamed researcher, but Santorum is still the one who stood in front of a crowd
of kids and said it out loud. "[The expert] found that even fathers in
jail who had abandoned their kids were still better than no father at all to
have in their children's lives," Santorum spewed.
Totally true. Kids with daddies in jail are so lucky. Known
fact. Kids with gay parents are sooooo jealous. Especially the three students
in the audience who, according to the school's headmaster, have gay parents.
Well played, Rick. No doubt these kids will start up some prison pen pal
relationships to make up for what is missing in their lives.
Although, Santorum did just mention missing fathers, so
maybe he's just talking about lesbian parents? Maybe having two daddies is okay
so long as one of them is in prison? It's all so confusing.
Which is why America must now allow same-sex couples to
marry and have kids.
"Marriage is not a right," Santorum said according
to the Los Angeles Times. "It's a privilege that is given to society by
society for a reason." And that reason? "We want to encourage what is
the best for children."
Otherwise we're "robbing children of something they
need, they deserve, they have a right to," he said. "You may
rationalize that that isn't true, but in your own life and in your own heart,
you know it's true."
Okay, first of all, what does "given to society by
society for a reason" even mean? Last time I checked, gays and lesbians
are part of society. Santorum likes to talk about "we" and
"America" as if gays and lesbians are some shiftless souls on the
outskirts of civilization. Which, to use Santorum's own words, requires quite a
bit of rationalizing.
Far more rationalizing than being able to admit that gay and
lesbian parents are raising lots of kids who are doing just fine. Better than
fine, even. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that a kid with two loving,
committed parents is pretty fortunate. Even if both of those parents are moms
or dads. And especially if neither is having their cellmate ink a teardrop on
their face with a tattoo gun fashioned out of a Bic pen, toothbrush, and a
guitar string.