During his appearance at Greenwell Springs Baptist Church Sunday, Republican hopeful Rick Santorum promised churchgoers that he would commit to repealing the fall of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ (DADT) – the now-defunct policy that prohibited gays and lesbians from disclosing their sexual orientation in the military – if elected as president of the United States.
Santorum told Pastor Dennis Terry and the church congregation that the repeal of DADT was “not in the best interest of our men and women in uniform.” Santorum added, “that doesn’t mean that people who are gays and lesbians can’t serve.”
The presidential hopeful has been a staunch opponent of the repeal of DADT and has accused the Obama administration of “systematically [using] this military for social experimentation” by “overturning the Don’t Ask Don‘t Tell policy and forcing open homosexuality on the military.”
Terry, an outspoken Christian evangelist and president of the Family Research Council, followed Santorum’s comments by telling church audience that liberals and non-Christians should “get out” of America and added, “We don’t worship Buddha, we don’t worship Mohammad, we don’t worship Allah!”
Terry has a history of attacking the LGBT community and has condemned basic human rights including same-sex marriage, abortion rights, and secular government.
Irrespective of Rick Santorum’s homophobia, equality still eludes our gay heroes in uniform. Legally married same-sex military spouses are denied health insurance, commissary, housing allowance and other base privileges as compared to their opposite-sex married counterparts. For those interested – http://OUTmilitary.com has been providing a supportive environment for friending, sharing and networking between Gay active military, vets and supporters since December, 2010.