Santorum’s View of Sodomy Case

Re “Santorum Defends Remarks on Gays,” April 23: In one little interview, Republican Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania suggested that the federal government has the right to pry into the bedrooms of all Americans, equated gay and lesbian sex with bestiality and said that priests’ sexual abuse of teenagers actually constituted consensual homosexual activity rather than an act of statutory rape. In trying to show his compassionate side he also said, “I have no problem with homosexuals. I have a problem with homosexual acts.”

To that, I say I have no problem with Neanderthals. I have a problem with Neanderthal speech.

Larry Buhl

West Hollywood

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Well, Sen. Santorum, you have really put your foot in your mouth this time. But don’t take it out just yet. Don’t retract those nasty little statements of yours. Let the nation have some more time to realize how the new Republican leaders really think. I wonder if all of the gay Republicans heading for Washington to attend the Log Cabin Club 2003 convention are going to finally wake up and smell the -- well, it isn’t coffee -- in time to re-register before 2004.

Alan Toy

Los Angeles

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I think that the voters of this country are quite capable of deciding whom they wish to throw out of office and for what reason. The politically motivated knee-jerk reaction of extreme groups that wish to forward their narrow agendas is not the form of protest that I wish to represent me.

Santorum made a statement regarding a specific legal matter. If a state cannot regulate a particular private act, then it cannot regulate any private act. That is not a comparison of the acts, only of the legal consequence.

If only those in the homosexual community and those who are fighting on their behalf would understand that in this case it is truly in their best interest to lose the battle in order to win the war. Overturning [the Texas sodomy law] under an ambiguous privacy clause may win the battle, but it could be the victims of incest and other vile acts who are the losers. Protesting the illegality of private acts between consenting adults and letting those in a particular state vote on such matters is winning the war.

Lorraine Kihm

Alta Loma