DENVER — Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum said Friday that the Supreme Court’s decision in favor of same-sex marriage is “based on a lie,” namely that the only argument against such unions is a hatred of gays.
The court’s Friday decision said in effect that “the only reason you could possibly oppose changing marriage laws in America is because you hate people of the same sex who want to marry. But that’s not true,” Mr. Santorum told the crowd Friday night at the Western Conservative Summit.
“It’s a decision based on a lie. It’s a decision based on fundamental untruths,” Mr. Santorum said. “And yet it is the law of the land.”
Mr. Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator who ran unsuccessfully for the 2014 nomination, said that the “foundation of every good and healthy society is the family unit,” but the decision in Obergefell v. Hodges redefines the family as adult-centered instead of child-centered.
“We are now faced not just with a society that’s going to say and is saying that marriage has nothing to do with children,” Mr. Santorum said. “That’s the impact of this decision. Marriage has nothing to do with children.”
Instead, he said, “Marriage has to do with adults and what makes adults happy, not what is necessary for children to be raised in a home where they have their birthright, a mother and a father who loves them and raises them into adulthood and into good citizens of America.”
SEE ALSO: Western Conservative Summit: ‘Not the Supreme Court appreciation party’
Mr. Santorum is one of six Republican presidential contenders scheduled to speak at the sixth annual summit, sponsored by the Centennial Institute at Colorado Christian University, which runs through Sunday at the Colorado Convention Center.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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