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Santorum invokes Westboro’s ‘God hates fags’ slogan to defend religious freedom laws

Santorum invokes Westboro’s ‘God hates fags’ slogan to defend religious freedom laws
Rick Santorum
Rick Santorum CBS

Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), on Sunday said he supports “religious freedom” laws like those in Indiana and Arkansas, and that they are not meant to discriminate against gays and lesbians.

Santorum falsely claimed the laws were designed to prevent government from forcing individuals to, for example, participate in hate speech, and used a gay slur to make his point to defend the right of businesses to deny services in public accommodations.

“If you’re a print shop, and you are a gay man, should you forced to print ‘God Hates Fags’ for the Westboro Baptist Church because they hold those signs up,” Santorum said.

“And this is really the case here: Should the government force you to do that? And that’s what these cases are all about. Because this is about the government coming in and saying, ‘No we’re going to make you do this.’ And this is where I think we just need some space to say, ‘Let’s have some tolerance be a two-way street.’”

“And that’s what these cases are all about. This is about the government coming in and saying, ‘No, we’re going to make you do this.’ And this is where I just think we need some space to say let’s have some tolerance, be a two-way street.”

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Sarah Warbelow of the Human Rights Campaign told O’Donnell that Santorum seemed to misunderstand the law.

“The legislation would have done no such thing,” she said. “It explicitly allowed individuals to use their religious beliefs to undermine other types of laws that provide protection, not only against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, but against other religious minorities and in some instances, against African-Americans and Asian-Americans.”

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VIA: Raw Story
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