| CHICAGO,
IL – U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) today called on President
Bush to denounce the bigoted statement made by Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA)
in regard to homosexuals and to urge him to relinquish his leadership position
in the Senate.
Schakowsky
wrote in a letter to President Bush that “Your silence is interpreted
as your condoning or even agreeing” with Santorum’s words.
Santorum equated intimacy between consenting adults of the same sex with
incest. Below is the full text of Schakowsky’s letter to President
Bush:
April
24, 2003
Dear
President Bush:
I
am writing to ask you to denounce the bigoted and misinformed statement
of Senator Rick Santorum in regard to homosexuals and to urge him to relinquish
his leadership position in the Senate. As leader of this nation and
all its people, you should take this opportunity to condemn gratuitous
attacks on a large minority of Americans.
Senator
Santorum equated intimacy between two adults of the same sex with incest,
which is a criminal act against a defenseless child. This is beyond
insulting. He said, “If the Supreme Court says that you have the
right to consensual sex within your home, you have the right to polygamy,
you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery, you have
the right to anything.”
Senator
Santorum outright questions any right to privacy. He said, “And
if you make the case that if you can do whatever you want to do, as long
as it’s in the privacy of your own home, this ‘right to privacy,’ then
why be surprised that people are doing things that are deviant within their
own home?”
Regardless
of one’s sexual orientation, I believe most Americans are disturbed by
the notion that the government will decide what consensual activity can
or cannot be conducted between adults in the privacy of their own homes,
especially their bedrooms.
I
believe that Senator Santorum’s hurtful, intolerant and discriminatory
remarks cannot be left to stand without criticism from you, the President
of the United States and the leader of the Republican Party. Your
silence is interpreted as your condoning or even agreeing with his words.
Millions of Americans, gay and straight, believe that you should ask Senator
Santorum to step down from his position of leadership and to apologize
for his remarks.
Sincerely,
Jan
Schakowsky
Member
of Congress |
