A number of people, including Henry Hanks, are upset at a comment made by Republican Senator Rick Santorum, but I can’t figure out what the controversy is. Gay rights group Human Rights Campaign wants Santorum removed from office because he said,
If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual (gay) sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything.
And the problem with that statement is . . . um, well, somebody help me here.
Come on — Santorum’s exactly right. If the government has no compelling state interest in outlawing homosexuality, it certainly has no business regulating other sexual acts between consenting adults (or does the HRC think that married swingers are perverts who threaten the moral foundation of the Republic?!?). The inevitable Supreme Court ruling in favor of homosexual sex will completely undercut the arguments against the other forms of consenting sexual behavior that Santorum rails against.
It’s hard to understand why the Human Rights Campaign and others think this is a bad thing.