"If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual [gay] sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything."

These are the worrds of Senator Rick Santorum, uttered in reference to the Texas sodomy law case. His apologists (including "civil rights proponent" Chris Matthews) say that Santorum was referring to a legal issue, not displaying bigotry. But the quickest glance at the remarks indicate that he could not possibly have been referring to a legal issue because bigamy, polygamy, incest and adultery are all behaviors that either hurt someone else, or stand a chance of hurting someone else. The sexual behavior of gay citizens within their own homes--in and of itself--cannot possibly hurt anyone.

In fact, comparing incest with adultery is ridiculous. How can having sex with children be placed in the same category as having an affair outside of marriage?

Obviously, Santorum was talking about values. We understand that Santorum was taught that homosexuality--a condition of one's genetic self--is wrong. It is absurd to call a part of one's genetic makeup "wrong," but people like Santorum do it all the time. But to find a legal harm in the relationship between one gay individual and another, and to compare it with child abuse, is outrageous.

More compassionate conservatism. When will people demand that it end?