Santorum and Romney Again Denigrate Gays

I swear it seems like a contest at times amongst the would be presidential candidates to see who can most trash LGBT citizens - all the time forgetting that we ARE citizens who are supposed to have 100% equal rights as other citizens under the laws and the state and federal constitutions. Think Progress looks at two of the latest attacks on LGBT citizens here and here. One first insult is by Rick Santorum who continues to claim that being gay is a "choice" - apparently just as being an ignorant ass like Santorum is a choice. Then Mitt "I want to be all things to everyone" Romney panders to the Christofascists with statements reviving his past view that homosexuality is "perverse" and "reprehensible." If I were so inclined, I could say that the same holds true for being a Mormon. Here's a run down of the "frothy mix's" run in with a lesbian film maker in New Hampshire:

Documentary film maker Kristina Lapinski attended Thursday night’s Granite State Patriots Liberty PAC candidates forum in New Hampshire and asked Rick Santorum how he would react if she — a lesbian — were his daughter. The former Pennsylvania senator said he would love her, before claiming, “like anything in life, it is your choice“

When challenged by Lapinski, Santorum continued to insist that sexual orientation is a choice. I guess he thinks he knows more than all of the legitimate mental health and medical associations that have concluded to the contrary of his opinion. I will concede that I view Santorum as a mentally ill religious fanatic. Mitt Romney, on the other hand knows better than to lie just to kiss up to extremists. Here are highlights of Romney's anti-gay gyrations:

Throughout his campaign, Mitt Romney has struggled to deflect criticism that he is an unprincipled flip-flopper. . . . But of all the issues on which Romney has taken a stance, few have been subject to more contortions than homosexuality and marriage equality. It’s often noted that Romney’s vigorous opposition to gay marriage — so extreme that he has aligned himself with the right-wing National Organization for Marriage — is not a staunch, long-held belief. During Romney’s 1994 senatorial run, for example, he pledged to “make equality for gays and lesbians a mainstream concern.”

What has been largely overlooked is that prior to Romney’s unsuccessful senatorial run, his beliefs about gays were, to put it kindly, not so magnanimous. According to several articles in the Boston Globe in the mid ’90s, just before launching his senate run, Romney told an audience of Mormon Church members that homosexuality was “perverse” and “reprehensible.” From the Boston Globe, July 15, 1994: Speaking last fall to a Mormon Church gathering, Mitt Romney, then on the verge of launching a bid for a US Senate seat, expressed dismay at reports of homosexual behavior in the group and denounced homosexuality as “perverse,” according to several people present at the meeting.

Romney denied the veracity of the comments but, as the Globe noted, the account was confirmed by three other attendees. . . . The Romney campaign was deeply displeased by the Globe’s disclosure of the candidates comments.

I am so, so over the constant attacks on tax paying citizens - who often contribute far more to their communities than do the heterosexual counterparts - just so the Christianists can feel superior about themselves. It's crap like this that helps guarantee I'll hold my nose and vote for Obama in 2012.