GOProud demands apology from Rick Santorum

Rick Santorum is feeling the heat from conservative gay rights group GOProud after what the group calls anti-gay comments in a Fox News- and Google-sponsored debate Thursday evening. Gay soldier, Steven Hill, asked the presidential candidates if they would each do anything to “circumvent” the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell if elected president, CBS News reports. After the audience booed the question, Santorum “declined to thank the soldier for his service” and called the demise of DADT a “social experimentation” and “tragic.”

“Tonight, Rick Santorum disrespected our brave men and women in uniform, and he owes Stephen Hill, the gay soldier who asked him the question about Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal, an immediate apology,” said GOProud’s Christopher Barron and Jimmy LaSalvia in a statement.

Santorum continued to explain: “I would say any type of sexual activity has absolutely no place in the military,” Santorum responded. “And the fact that they’re making a point to include it as a provision within the military that we are going to recognize a group of people and give them a special privilege to — and removing ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ I think tries to inject social policy into the military. And the military’s job is to do one thing, and that is to defend our country. What we’re doing is playing social experimentation with our military right now. And that’s tragic.”

GOProud has demanded an apology from Santorum calling his comments “anti-gay bigotry.” GOProud added: “Stephen Hill is serving our country in Iraq, fighting a war Senator Santorum says he supports. How can Senator Santorum claim to support this war if he doesn’t support the brave men and women who are fighting it?”