Santorum Says Gay Parents Worse Than Convicts

[wtfrenchtoast]

Ugh. I was actually kind of feeling sorry for the guy and his family regarding the alternate use of his last name. Thank goodness you FJers knocked some sense into me with this article! He can go fuck himself with a cheese grater. I'm off to google the shit out of santorum now, that needs to stay at the top.

[breadprincess]

He disgusts me. I am a young woman who is dating another young woman, who also takes BC to fight an illness that causes chronic, severe pain. Gay, and on BC pills? And still Christian? I think his head would explode if he even tried to comprehend that, to be honest.

Two of the happiest, most loved little boys I know are being raised by an extended family member of mine and his husband, but I know plenty of children that live with less-than-awesome heterosexual parents.

Also, his obsession with knowing what goes on in the bedrooms of consenting homosexual adults is really, really creepy. That's none of his business, and frankly, it's probably not as salacious and scandalous as I'm sure he has spent hours imagining it is. Seriously, he spends more time thinking about gay sex than most gay people actually spend having it.

[JesusFightClub]

People go to prison for all kinds of reasons, so I agree with Santorum a bit that a convict dad isn't automatically a bad dad. I have a mate in the jail right now who isn't a bad person. I know many people with criminal records who are or would be excellent parents.

What is totally weird is the mad idea that having two loving, present parents of the same sex there for you constantly is more harmful to the child than having a locked up dad who the child gets to see rarely (in a cold, hostile environment) as well as the stigma of daddy being in the jail. It is a crazy comparison.

Nobody in that circumstance wishes it on their kids. In fact for people doing time that can be one of the hardest things of all.

So in conclusion you can have:

Two mums or two dads that give you lots of hugs and love and go to your school play and concert

A mum who cries a lot, some of the neighbours don't speak to her any more. You are taken once a month to a big scary place to see your dad who is being punished. You know your dad loves you but it makes you so sad you can't be with him. When he gets out he can't get a job with a criminal record, does another crime and goes back inside. You are again deprived of his loving presence. Your mum cries more. The teachers at school whisper "That one...the father's a career criminal, you know." When you do something wrong, "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, does it?"

SANTORUM! Think on, eh.

[doggie]

Rick Santorum’s surprising second-place finish in Iowa comes after months of dogged campaigning throughout the sate’s 99 counties and more than 350 town halls. ThinkProgress tracked the former Pennsylvania senator throughout this period and has compiled a list of his top 10 most outrageous claims:

1) ANNUL ALL SAME-SEX MARRIAGES: Arguing that gay relationships “destabilize†society, Santorum wouldn’t offer any legal protections to gay relationships and has pledged to annul all same-sex marriages if elected president. During his 99-country tour of Iowa, Santorum frequently compared same-sex relationships to inanimate objects like trees, basketballs, beer, and paper towels and even tried to blame the economic crisis on gay people. As Santorum explained back in August, religious people have a constitutional right to discriminate against gays: “We have a right the Constitution of religious liberty but now the courts have created a super-right that’s above a right that’s actually in the Constitution, and that’s of sexual liberty. And I think that’s a wrong, that’s a destructive element.â€

2) ‘I’M FOR INCOME INEQUALITY’: “They talk about income inequality. I’m for income inequality,†Santorum said during an event in Pella, Iowa in December. “I think some people should make more than other people, because some people work harder and have better ideas and take more risk, and they should be rewarded for it. I have no problem with income inequality.â€

3) CONTRACEPTION IS ‘A LICENSE TO DO THINGS’: Santorum has pledged to repeal all federal funding for contraception and allow the states to outlaw birth control, insisting that “it’s a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be.â€

4) GAY SOLDIERS ‘CAUSE PROBLEMS FOR PEOPLE LIVING IN CLOSE QUARTERS’: During an appearance on Fox News Sunday in October, Santorum defended his support for Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell by arguing that gay soldiers would disrupt the military because “they’re in close quarters, they live with people, they obviously shower with people.†He also suggested that “there are people who were gay and lived the gay lifestyle and aren’t anymore.â€

5) OBAMA SHOULD OPPOSE ABORTION BECAUSE HE’S BLACK: During an appearance on Christian television in January, Santorum said he was surprised that President Obama didn’t know when life began — given his skin color. “I find it almost remarkable for a black man to say ‘now we are going to decide who are people and who are not people,†he explained.

6) WE DON’T NEED FOOD STAMPS BECAUSE OBESITY RATES ARE SO HIGH: Speaking in Le Mars, Iowa in December, Santorum promised to significantly reduce federal funding for food stamps, arguing that the nation’s increasing obesity rates render the program unnecessary.

7) ABORTION EXCEPTIONS TO PROTECT WOMEN’S HEALTH ARE ‘PHONY’: While discussing his track record as a champion of the partial birth abortion ban in June, Santorum dismissed exceptions other senators wanted to carve out to protect the life and health of mothers, calling such exceptions “phony.†“They wanted a health exception, which of course is a phony exception which would make the ban ineffective,†he said.

8) HEALTH REFORM WILL KILL MY CHILD: Santorum, who claims that Obamacare motivated him to run for president, told reporters in April that his daughter Bella — who was born with a genetic abnormality — wouldn’t survive in a country with “socialized medicine.†“Children like Bella are not given the treatment that other children are given.â€

9) UNINSURED AMERICANS SHOULD SPEND LESS ON CELL-PHONE BILLS: During a meeting with the editorial board of the Des Moines Register in August, Santorum said that people who can’t afford health care should stop whining about the high costs of medical treatments and medications and spend less on non essentials. Answering a question about the uninsured, Santorum explained that health care, like a car, is a luxury resource that is rationed by society and recalled the story of a woman who said she was spending $200 a month on life-saving prescriptions. Santorum told her to stop complaining and instead lower her cable and cell phone bills.

10) INSURERS SHOULD DISCRIMINATE AGAINST PEOPLE WITH PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS: Santorum sounded like a representative from the health insurance industry when he addressed a small group of high school students in Merrimack, New Hampshire in December. The former Pennsylvania senator not only defended insurers for denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, he also argued that individuals who are sick should pay higher premiums because they cost more money to insure.

[Kelya]

8 and 10 in Doggie's post are so contradictory they make my head spin. Earth logic fail.

[Jenesis Jexodus]

I wish Santorum was in jail.

[margiebargie]

I've done my civic duty. I googled "santorum" and clicked on the appropriate link. It's first by the way. Hahahaha.

[Sky_Diamond]

Why does the Republican party keep sending idiots to rule the world. I am shocked to admit it but compared to this idiot and Palin Bush was ok(is)

[Peas n carrots]

Just ask my dad, who has taught high school SPED in a very economically depressed area, what he thinks about parents in jail. So tell me Rick, how is it better to have children living with extended family, passed around like hot potatoes? Because that was often the case with these kids. I think at one point my dad had 40% of his SPED students with at least one parent incarcerated, and a good number of those kids had both parents incarcerated. There were virtually no jobs in this town so if there was a parent at home they were commuting at least 45 minutes to a larger town, and then the jobs were oftentimes low paying menial jobs. It was depressing how many kids lived in homes without electricity, running water, or both because whoever they lived with wouldn't/couldn't pay the bill. These kids really had no positive role models, and often would perpetuate the lifestyle of their parents.

Tell me Rick, how is that better?

[Childless]

Santorum is an idiot. There is something seriously wrong with you if you support this guy.

Does he suggest we take children from loving gay homes and throw them in foster care? The foster system is already stressed to the breaking point with children who are actually in danger in their own homes. Where does he think all these new children will be put?

Is Santorum volunteering to subsidize my salary to pay for all these children I'm going to have when birth control is outlawed? Or is he comfortable with children living in poverty?

I know he's comfortable with people dying painful and needless deaths due to a lack of health insurance otherwise he wouldn't support insurance companies denying coverage for people with pre-existing conditions.

And this guy parades around claiming to be Christian? I thought Jesus taught us to help the poor and less fortunate. I thought Jesus taught us to love our neighbors and accept them unconditionally. This man is no Christian.

[MLizabeth]

Normally I try not to get too exercised about politicians, but I hate RS with a burning passion. I don't know if anyone else saw the NH debate last night, but I thought he was such a coward, he would even come out and say directly that he would dissolve existing gay marriages if he could.

Re: fitness of gay parents, I give you exhibits A and B

A. My neighbors. Mom is a semi-recoving herion addict on methadone maintainence. Man of the house is a petty thief and drug dealer (confirmed because people regularly show up a his house screaming that he cheated them or sold their kid drugs). Kids range in age from 1-15. Oldest daughter hangs out with older men who buy her fancy things and give her drugs. I heard her tell a police officer and her mom that "I can do whatever fucking drugs I want to and you can't stop me." Youngest child has had a couple of serious accidents and was once found while about to ingest some of her sister's drugs (these are row houses, so you can hear everything that goes on). There is also a baby daddy, with who there seems to be some drama-involving the mom screaming out on the street in the middle of the night and trying to jump into a police car as it pulled up to their house. During on three month stretch some combination of the police and DYS were at their house a minimum of two times every day. Kids have never been removed from the family that I am aware of.

B. My partner and I. Boring middle-aged lesbians, educated, employed, married. Waited until we had all of our partying out of our systems before deciding to have a kid. We work and hang out with our baby, feed her healthy food, read her books, play music, play with toys, take her to doctor's appts, make sure she gets her medicines, generally love on her. We have no drama and cops do not show up at our house.

We aren't perfect parents (there is no such thing) and our neighbor isn't evil (there is a lot of multi generational poverty and drug use here, so in addition to any poor choices she made, I'm sure she was dealt a bad hand to begin with. However, if you are going to compare our families, it is an absolute objective fact that my partner and I provide a better home environment for kids than do my neighbors. I hate RS not only because he is a bigot, but because he is so incredibly stupid that he needs to reduce any complex social issue to its most ridiculous parts-as seen in the fact that he and his wife face some really hard decisions with their unborn child and tried to make the best choice out of a bunch of crappy choices, but he does not respect others to do the same.

[end rant]

[ElphabaGalinda]

Normally I try not to get too exercised about politicians, but I hate RS with a burning passion. I don't know if anyone else saw the NH debate last night, but I thought he was such a coward, he would even come out and say directly that he would dissolve existing gay marriages if he could.

Re: fitness of gay parents, I give you exhibits A and B

A. My neighbors. Mom is a semi-recoving herion addict on methadone maintainence. Man of the house is a petty thief and drug dealer (confirmed because people regularly show up a his house screaming that he cheated them or sold their kid drugs). Kids range in age from 1-15. Oldest daughter hangs out with older men who buy her fancy things and give her drugs. I heard her tell a police officer and her mom that "I can do whatever fucking drugs I want to and you can't stop me." Youngest child has had a couple of serious accidents and was once found while about to ingest some of her sister's drugs (these are row houses, so you can hear everything that goes on). There is also a baby daddy, with who there seems to be some drama-involving the mom screaming out on the street in the middle of the night and trying to jump into a police car as it pulled up to their house. During on three month stretch some combination of the police and DYS were at their house a minimum of two times every day. Kids have never been removed from the family that I am aware of.

B. My partner and I. Boring middle-aged lesbians, educated, employed, married. Waited until we had all of our partying out of our systems before deciding to have a kid. We work and hang out with our baby, feed her healthy food, read her books, play music, play with toys, take her to doctor's appts, make sure she gets her medicines, generally love on her. We have no drama and cops do not show up at our house.

We aren't perfect parents (there is no such thing) and our neighbor isn't evil (there is a lot of multi generational poverty and drug use here, so in addition to any poor choices she made, I'm sure she was dealt a bad hand to begin with. However, if you are going to compare our families, it is an absolute objective fact that my partner and I provide a better home environment for kids than do my neighbors. I hate RS not only because he is a bigot, but because he is so incredibly stupid that he needs to reduce any complex social issue to its most ridiculous parts-as seen in the fact that he and his wife face some really hard decisions with their unborn child and tried to make the best choice out of a bunch of crappy choices, but he does not respect others to do the same.

[end rant]

I just wanted to say that you and your partner seem like great parents and your child is lucky to have you. I would also like someone to present Santorum with two situations like your neighbours and yours and see which ones he says is better. I don't think he can say your neighbours situation is better without sounding like an idiot. If this guy even becomes the republican nominee, i would find that absolutely terrifying. I have hope the majority of American people aren't stupid enough to allow him to be president, if that happened.

[genericJname]

8) HEALTH REFORM WILL KILL MY CHILD: Santorum, who claims that Obamacare motivated him to run for president, told reporters in April that his daughter Bella — who was born with a genetic abnormality — wouldn’t survive in a country with “socialized medicine.†“Children like Bella are not given the treatment that other children are given.â€

Grrr. I cannot tell you how much is wrong with this argument. My son has a very serious medical condition and I do a lot of social networking with other families from all over. The kids in "socialized medicine" countries get the same treatments,but their parents don't lose sleep at night worrying that if they make a mistake in keeping health coverage, their child could die.

[FlorenceHamilton]

If Rick Santorum emerges as the candidate, Pennsylvania may actually secede from the country.

[lexiloumarie]

As a gay mom to soon to be two children from your f-ing old district, I say this this with perfect understanding of who you are: go fall in a hole. A big one. Like center of the Earth type.

If Rick Santorum emerges as the candidate, Pennsylvania may actually secede from the country.

We would, we've already done our time. Even the farther right people I know are really confused/pissed he's gaining traction.

[pomology]

Rick Santorum is... well, a pile of santorum. There's nothing more to say than that.

So, my mom is really liberal, but she doesn't really tend to follow politics (unlike the rest of my family in varying degrees). But she heard a clip of Santorum talking about abortion on the floor of the Senate on NPR the other day and was absolutely horrified by what she heard.

[SquirrelySquirrel]

Keep up the good fight, FJers! His official site is #1 and spreadingsantorum is #2 right now.

One thing that always baffles me in the argument against same sex couples raising children is this: A committed homosexual couple canNOT have an "oopsie" baby. It's just not possible. So they have to at least plan ahead, which will probably equal more stability. And so their abortion rates have to be the lowest on the spectrum.

This is not to say that homosexual = bestest parents ever and heterosexual = living in slums. There are obviously good and bad situations all across the board, but I still find the arguments so weak it's ridiculous. And that's not even getting into all of the single parents out there.

[Discobiscuit]

Quoting from doggie's source:

Rick Santorum’s surprising second-place finish in Iowa comes after months of dogged campaigning throughout the sate’s 99 counties and more than 350 town halls. ThinkProgress tracked the former Pennsylvania senator throughout this period and has compiled a list of his top 10 most outrageous claims:

1) ANNUL ALL SAME-SEX MARRIAGES: Arguing that gay relationships “destabilize†society, Santorum wouldn’t offer any legal protections to gay relationships and has pledged to annul all same-sex marriages if elected president.

Gay relationships (i.e marriage) destablize society? How? Marriage is supposed to be about stability; you have two people making a public, legal commitment to each other to stay sexually and emotionally faithful to each other, to pool resources to gain certain legal and social privileges, to raise children (if desired) in a stable environment etc. If you are a Christian or socially conservative person, isn't that kind of stability a GOOD thing?

The stupidity and irrational prejudice, I do not get.

[JesusFightClub]

MLizabeth, your family setup sounds great. I hope your neighbours get some help that works for them.

With that in mind, I had something I was going to post in "stuff I would like to say" that I saw tonight. My neighbourhood's a bit weird, on edge (is it the full moon yet? or?) and I walked out of my house and into a fullblown screaming match between neighbours.

The dad was shouting "You fucking bitch, you left my bairns alone to buy drugs!" The mum was shouting "And who were you fucking poking at the time, you piece of shit!" They were about to come to blows when they were separated. The bairns (children) in question were by the road watching.

I do not think this makes for a healthier, happier child than the one MLizabeth and her partner are mums to. I am puzzled by the assertion that it would, really.

I thought both the mum and dad loved their kids even if they weren't, ahem, precisely doing it right. Dad was worried about his kids' safety, mum was obviously loved by them and showed concern about them even in the fight. As for living in a poor area, that doesn't make one a bad parent. I and they stay in a working class community, not a slum. We've both had the police round. Nobody wins playing games like that. Having said that, those kids are not going to feature on a Happy Families card set any time soon, even though they know their dad.

What I mean is there are families in trouble who need help and families not in trouble who do not, but this is not predicated on what the sex of the parents is. A two mum or two dad family can be completely stable. Or might not be. A mum and dad family can be completely stable. Or not.

Which is why Santorum sounds like a total weirdo.

[MLizabeth]

And for Santorum the government funding parenting classes, or subsidies for health care, or job training, or any sort of social safety net for families is what is destroying this country, while dissolving legal relationships between consenting adults, poking around in bedrooms, or presumable conducting virginity checks is part of strengthening democracy.

[m0drnmoonlight]

Wow...where do I start. Oh, I know!

Look no further than Santorum's biggest cheerleaders, the Duggars, to see that his argument is absolute bullshit. There's a mom and dad there, but they're more like a breeder and weekend daddy at best. Jichelle has absolutely NO relationship with any of children, except for maybe Smuggar. The oldest girls are more like colleagues to her, like when she talks about their parenting skills. Hell, I think she sees all of the kids from like Josiah on up as serfs to her queen - what can they do for her? Poor Joyanna is just invisible to her, apart from some fleeting comments about how she's a tomboy like Jichelle was, but you know that'll be Gotharized out of her and judging by how gloomy she's looked lately, the process has already started. She has no idea how to control the Howlers, and I doubt she can even name them all correctly. The littlest girls are like little dolls to her, with the lace and ruffles and gigantic hair bows, but she lost interest in each one when the newest arrives. I think she's even lost interest in Josie at this point, and that poor baby's been flung on the pile with the rest of them. How all these right-wing, ultra-conservative groups keep showering her with Mother of the Year awards, I don't know. To quote Rhett Butler, a cat's a better mother than she is.

JimBoob is just as clueless. To continue the metaphor, he also sees the older kids as serfs to his king. Seriously, what the hell do those two DO all day (besides screw)? All the older kids (primarily the girls) are the ones running the house! I've also seen a huge competitive streak in him when it comes to the older boys and that's just ridiculous. Why do you have to keep proving yourself as better compared to your own children? At best, he's a weekend daddy, stepping in to have fun with the kids for the cameras, rough-housing with the little boys and traumatizing the little girls, then taking off when real responsibility's needed. The Bates family has drunk as much Kool-Aid as the Duggars have, but you know what? From looking at their website and reading their kids' bio, you can see that Gil and Kelly truly love their children and talk at length about each and every one of them, from their interests to their personalities. The Duggars stop at "He likes to play!" "She has a kind heart." "He doesn't like pickles!" "She wants to be a mommy!" We've seen them ignore their children or dump them on the older girls when they're in need. It's neglectful and it's heartbreaking for the littlest kids who probably are so confused at Mommy rejecting them.

Wow, sorry for ranting so much heh. Anyway, I have friends who are gay and none of them have children yet, though some are planning to. When they do, those will be some very lucky kids. Because my friends are kind, loving, responsible, and will do anything they can to give their children the best lives, just like some members have posted here. The fact that Santorum thinks you're all bad parents just because you're in a relationship with someone of the same sex is beyond disgusting. And that's a huge slap in the face to single parents too. I know tons of people raised in a single family household, and they're all happy adults who function in society just the same as someone who was raised by two parents. So my friend who was raised solely by her mother and is currently finishing up college and planning for grad school had a horrible upbringing because her dad was out of the picture? Fuck you, Santorum. What about parents who have nannies doing all the child-rearing...that's better than two mothers or fathers raising a child?

The Duggars blow his argument right out of the water. And sorry for turning this into a novel - I'm new and I had a lot to say!

[doggie]

he is a conservative christian. sometimes it seems that's really all that is important. they are trying to elect beliefs not a person. It is the typical he is a so and so thats means he is a moral person crap.

[crazyforkate]

Grrr. I cannot tell you how much is wrong with this argument. My son has a very serious medical condition and I do a lot of social networking with other families from all over. The kids in "socialized medicine" countries get the same treatments,but their parents don't lose sleep at night worrying that if they make a mistake in keeping health coverage, their child could die.

Really? Because I was always under the impression that here in Canada we just leave non-perfect babies out in the year-round winter to die. It happened to my friend's baby...and my newborn cousin...and me...wait, no, it totally didn't. How the hell does Santorum get these ideas? Does he think that in France or something they'd just let Bella die?

[Sister Mary Savage]

I seriously doubt that we will be saying "president Santorum" any time in the near future.

[CanadianHippie]

Really? Because I was always under the impression that here in Canada we just leave non-perfect babies out in the year-round winter to die. It happened to my friend's baby...and my newborn cousin...and me...wait, no, it totally didn't. How the hell does Santorum get these ideas? Does he think that in France or something they'd just let Bella die?

His world and the real world are two different places.