SANTORUM: IT'S NOT ABOUT SEX

Aside from the few in the audience who boo'd Stephen Hill (the soldier who asked the question), this video of Rick Santorum (R-PA) is also insteresting because of his answer to Megan Kelly's follow-up question, about whether or not he would reinstate Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT) if he were electe... well, if hell froze over...
(more ridiculousness after the jump)


His answer to that question is the more interesting part of this video. 


In making the case for his dream of reinstating DADT, Santorum says, "keep your sex life to yourself, whether you're homosexual or heterosexual." The former Senator forgets that the discussion has progressed from there.


One of the comments under the video, from a "franklovesyall," was fascinating:

"Not in my 7 years of service did I ever witness anyone getting booted for being gay. On the contrary, I heard stories of cowards in combat or in hard times perform gay acts blatantly in order to get kicked to avoid going to war using this excuse... which was a slap in the face of the brave gay men and lesbian women who served with honor. I served with gays. They did a fine job."

He says he "heard stories of cowards" who would pretend to be gay just to get themselves tossed out of combat. Were those tall tales? Was it true? Who knows. But it certainly hints of a military that has gone through a lot of "growing pains" to get where it got this year.


Turns out that this Frank guy, as his later comments reveal, is actually a supporter of DADT. But his reasoning is, at best, questionable. See for yourself:

...sex will always be an issue. Think back to your deployment days and general order 1. Females are off limits. Period. If someone so much as seen a male standing in the doorway of a female tent, you can expect to get a stripe ripped from your sleeve and doing extra duty and docking your pay. Nobody ever cried about that though. Gays will be doing extra blood tests and discrimination. That's the whole reason Bill Clinton made DADT was to protect gays.

See. Frank kind of misses the point entirely that it's not just about sex. Really, it's not about sex at all. Which brings me back to Frank's good point: the military IS full of brave men and women. And I bet they would be livid with Rick Santorum's insinuation that all service members are incapable of seeing passed a person's sexual orientation. 


Santorum needs to stop using his 2006 talking points.


(video courtesy http://thinkprogress.org)