Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum admonished his competitors Thursday for their reactions to the Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage, saying as president he would fight to repeal the ruling and implement a law protecting religious freedoms enshrined in the First Amendment.
“Many are moving on,” Santorum said of Republican reactions to the court ruling. “Well not me. This will not stand.”
The former Pennsylvania senator gave the keynote speech at a gala for the National Organization for Marriage – a conservative organization that defines marriage as between a man and a woman – Thursday in Washington.
“This has nothing to do with hate or fear,” Santorum said. “This has to do with people of goodwill, who have looked at a couple thousand years of human history, looked at what has made this country free and great and prosperous, and recognized that the foundation of that is the nuclear family.”
He already signed the organization’s presidential pledge before the event calling on candidates to take certain actions to preserve a conservative idea of marriage should they be elected. Actions called for include supporting a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman and overturning the Supreme Court decision.
He said successful children can come from families that don’t have a married mother and father, but are less likely to.
“We want what’s best, don’t we,” he said. “Shouldn’t we always try to strive for what’s best?”
Santorum has never been shy about voicing his opposition to same-sex marriage and quickly expressed his disappointment with the court’s ruling on social media shortly after the decision was handed down, tweeting, “Today, 5 unelected judges redefined the foundational unit of society. Now it is the people’s turn to speak #Marriage.”
Email: ckennedy@mcclatchydc.com Twitter: @corinneskennedy
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