The time is long overdue for Americans to stop tolerating leaders who make derogatory comments about any group of citizens - including homosexuals. But the GOP still doesn't seem ready to send out that memo.
Nonetheless, it's good to see some sort of an uproar brewing after U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum's, R-Penn., views on a Supreme Court challenge to a Texas law banning sodomy were published by The Associated Press.
The Republican lawmaker said, "If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual sex within your own home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything.
"All those things are antithetical to the healthy, stable, traditional family."
Santorum used the term "consensual" to refer to homosexuals.
The senator's comments are offensive on so many levels it's disturbing. But that's just par for some in the GOP.
It seems since sexual orientation is sadly not a normative condition in anti-discrimination policies, Republican lawmakers often find no harm in speaking ignorantly about homosexuals.
Just eight years ago, lawmakers were resorting to playground taunts on Capitol Hill when former House Majority Leader Dick Armey referred to openly gay Congressman Barney Frank as Barney Fag. Just three years later, Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., likened gays to kleptomaniacs.
In addition, former Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., once called homosexuality "sickening" and Sen. James M. Inhofe, R-Okla., compared a gay business executive nominated to an ambassadorship by President Clinton to former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.
Sadly, anti-homosexual sentiments aren't only confined to national leadership - Republicans in the Michigan Legislature also have engaged in the hateful rhetoric.
Since 2002, state lawmakers have kept anti-bullying legislation in committee largely because many feel sexual orientation shouldn't be included in the bill's protection criteria. And former state Senate Majority Floor Leader Joanne Emmons, R-Battle Creek, told The State News she was "pro-family" when asked her stance on gay rights.
Emmons' comments echoed Santorum's views that claim lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender lifestyles are a threat to traditional families.
Perhaps it would do GOP lawmakers some good to stop living in "Nick at Nite." There is a reason the Seavers, Cleavers and Cosbys exist in the world of television. We suggest they take in a rerun of "My Two Dads" or "Married with Children."
Many Americans don't come from "traditional families" and that isn't because of homosexual lifestyles. The traditional family has been replaced in America by the real-life family and there isn't anything wrong with that.
We hope GOP family members will come to terms with reality soon and start fighting for people's civil rights both in Iraq and America.
