For the second time in as many days, Rick Santorum waded into the issue of same sex marriage, suggesting it was so important for children to have both a father and mother that an imprisoned father was preferable to a same sex parent. Citing the work of one anti-poverty expert, Santorum said, "He found that even fathers in jail who had abandoned their kids were still better than no father at all to have in their children's lives." Allowing gays to marry and raise children, Santorum said, amounts to "robbing children of something they need, they deserve, they have a right to. You may rationalize that that isn't true, but in your own life and in your own heart, you know it's true." According to The Los Angeles Times, at a private boarding school Friday, the Republican presidential candidate's voice grew emotional as he argued that only a man and woman should be able to marry. "Marriage is not a right," Santorum said. "It's a privilege that is given to society by society for a reason.... We want to encourage what is the best for children." The audience, half students and half local residents, reacted with snorts and applause. The students at Dublin School, which runs from ninth through 12th grade, were primed for Santorum's visit, said headmaster Brad Bates. He said three students in the audience had gay parents, though they were not among those who asked about the topic. Santorum's comments once again drew attention away from his efforts to craft a blue-collar economic message. On Thursday he tangled with college students over same sex marriage. In that encounter, a woman in the audience asked whether the right to happiness was grounds for gay people to marry, and Santorum responded by asking whether she believed more than two people could have that right. "If you're not happy unless you're married to five other people, is that OK?" he asked, prompting boos from the audience. Santorum's combative stance against gay rights — particularly his remark during a 2003 interview that gay marriage is no different from "man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be" — have distinguished him as a hero of those who oppose gay rights and brought him a collection of trouble from activists who support them. The former Pennsylvania senator has been a conservative crusader on social issues, which had far more political resonance in Iowa than in New Hampshire. The candidate's comments underscored a sharper tone in the campaign Friday, with much of the skirmishing among a handful of Republicans bidding for a second-place finish behind presidential front-runner Mitt Romney.
The leader of the Democrat-controlled Iowa Senate vows to continue to block any attempts to ban same sex marriage. The Waterloo Cedar-Falls Courier reports that Senator Mike Gronstal said this week that he will not allow a vote on an amendment to the constitution that would ban same sex marriage. "I'm not going to be a part of putting discrimination into the state's constitution," he said. Gronstal remains adamant even as opponents of same sex marriage have singled him out as a target of attacks. Bob Vander Plaats, leader of The Family Leader, has previously said Gronstal will be a prime target for defeat in the 2012 election. Vander Plaats was in Cedar Falls earlier this week to observe the caucuses and speak out for Rick Santorum. He was joined by Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage, which helped fund an effort in 2010 that resulted in removal of three Iowa Supreme Court justices who made gay marriage possible in the state. Brown expects Iowans will pressure Gronstal to allow a vote. "We've won in every state where we've had a direct referendum," he said. "All we're asking for is the people of Iowa have the same chance the public in 31 other states have had to have direct vote on this." While opponents point to Gronstal as the man preventing a vote on same sex marriage, State Senator Bill Dotzler (D-Waterloo) said this week that it is not just the Senate leader that stands in the way of the marriage amendment. "I think a broad majority of the caucus feels that way," Dotzler said. "If we had a different majority leader they would most likely take the same position." Iowa Senate rules give the majority leader the power to choose which measures are debated. Vander Plaats spearheaded the 2010 movement to recall three Iowa Supreme Court judges. He said he's not currently working on removing David Wiggins, another justice in the Varnum v. Brien case, who is up for a retention vote this fall. "It's up to the people of Iowa if they feel Wiggins should be removed as well," Vander Plaats said. "Personally, I think it should happen."
A judge has dismissed most of the claims in a lawsuit by two women who alleged their daughter's teacher discriminated against the girl because her parents are gay. Shannon Peterson and Jessica Bissell sued the Rio Rancho Public Schools district and the New Mexico Public Schools Insurance Authority for failing to stop other children from bullying their daughter and allowing her teacher to discriminate against her because of their sexuality. The Albuquerque Journal reports that seven of the nine counts in the lawsuit were dismissed by State District Judge Beatrice Brickhouse. Brickhouse said the women must demonstrate that not only did the teacher violate their rights but that the district has a custom or official policy that caused the violation. But the judge did not dismiss the claim that the district violated the New Mexico Human Rights Act by failing to prevent and stop the discrimination and a claim that the inaction led to the injuries of the fifth-grader at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary during the 2009-10 school year. The judge's decision was filed in late December. The lawsuit alleged that another student pushed the couple's daughter in February 2010, which resulted in a scrape on her face, a severe nose bleed, loosened front teeth and lacerated lips and gums. The girl's teacher didn't take her to the nurse's office, notify her parents or the school administration, according to the complaint. The couple alleges that the teacher, when confronted why the parents hadn't been called about the confrontation, told her that her motivation was her objection to the women's marriage. Peterson and Bissell were legally married in Des Moines, Iowa, in 2009. The lawsuit was filed in June.
0 comments:
Post a Comment