Santorum: Endorsing Same-Sex Marriage Equality ‘Suicidal’ for GOP
Lisa Barron
Former Sen. Rick Santorum said Monday it would be political suicide for the GOP to embrace gay marriage, and predicted the Supreme Court would not grant equality rights to same-sex couples.
“I’m sure you could go back and read stories, ‘The Republican Party’s going to change. This is the future.’ Obviously that didn’t happen,” he told The Des Moines Register.
“I think you’re going to see the same stories written now and it’s not going to happen. The Republican Party’s not going to change on this issue. In my opinion it would be suicidal if it did.”
The former Pennsylvania senator and 2012 GOP presidential candidate will be in Iowa next Monday to address the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition, a nonprofit group that promotes Christian principles in government. He reportedly will say that while some Republicans are now publicly backing same-sex marriage rights, the party as a whole should never support the idea.
Republican Sens. Mark Kirk of Illinois and Rob Portman of Ohio recently spoke out in favor of marriage equality, with Portman explaining that he changed his position on the issue after learning that his son is gay.
It’s healthy to talk about how the party can best communicate its message, but “it’s another thing to change those foundational principles,” Santorum told the Register. “Just because some of those things happen to be popular right now doesn’t mean the Republican Party should follow suit.”
He also told the newspaper he does not believe the Supreme Court will make the “mistake” of granting same-sex marriage rights when it rules in June on separate challenges to the federal Defense of Marriage Act and California’s Proposition 8, both of which ban same-sex marriages.
“I think you’ll see, hopefully, a chastened Supreme Court is not going to make the same mistake in the [current] cases as they did in Roe v. Wade,” he told the newspaper, referring to the landmark 1973 ruling that affirmed a woman’s right to an abortion.
“I’m hopeful the Supreme Court learned its lesson about trying to predict where the American public is going on issues and trying to find rights in the Constitution that sit with the fancy of the day.”
Despite his foray back into Iowa, Santorum said he has not made any decisions about running for president again in 2016.