Rick Santorum Says Same Sex Marriage “Wrong And We Should Fight It In Every State;” Presidential Candidate Adds “Media Behind Movement And Hollywood Behind This Movement

The Des Moines Register reports that after GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum paraded through the streets of Indianola with his family on Saturday morning (there are nine Santorums in total) the former Pennsylvania senator spoke at a café in Winterset, the sometimes-forgotten home of one legendary actor. “It’s good to be here in Winterset – the real home of John Wayne,” Santorum said, in a not-so-subtle dig at Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann. “That’s all I’m going to say about that.” The Santorum family is on day five of an 18-day, 50-city tour across central Iowa leading up to the Ames straw poll. Santorum broke away from the family yesterday, however, to speak at the Western Conservative Summit in Denver, where presumptive presidential candidate and Texas Governor Rick Perry also spoke. After Perry said last week that he was “fine with” gay marriage at a state level, AP reports that “Santorum told about 1,000 people at the Western Conservative Summit Friday that New York ‘destroyed marriage’ and that states should not be permitted to allow gay unions.” In an interview with The Des Moines Register, Santorum elaborated, saying he believed gay marriage to be an issue pushed by special interests, not the American people: “You can’t have 50 different definitions of marriage. … It’s wrong and we should fight it in every state and we should try to pass a Federal law that makes sure that it is a uniform definition. … What’s happened is very powerful special interests and money are behind this movement, and the media is behind this movement and Hollywood is behind this movement, and it’s influencing the elite – the folks who are in the judicial branches and the branches of government. … I think this is an issue that needs to be settled collectively by the American public, not by a few group of elites who think it best to redesign the American culture.” A Gallup poll in May reported that 53 percent of surveyed Americans believe same-sex marriage should be valid under law, a slight but first-time majority.