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There was quick and severe public backlash to Santorum’s comments, including from LGBTQ activist and columnist Dan Savage. You have the right to anything.” Santorum elsewhere claimed that legalizing being gay would create precedent for legal unions such as “man on child” or “man on dog” sex. Santorum remarked: “If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual 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. In 2003, while serving as SRC Chairman and Pennsylvania senator, Santorum gave an interview to the Associated Press that touched on a pending Supreme Court ruling against sodomy laws. Santorum later campaigned for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, losing out to Mitt Romney he also briefly ran a presidential bid in 2016. This position brought him to higher prominence in national politics-and directed more attention toward his public statements, including his controversial 2003 comments on gayness, as we’ll shortly address. In 2000, Santorum became chairman of the Senate Republican Conference (SRC), which made him the third-highest ranking Senate Republican as well as one of the youngest senators in a leadership position. Rick Santorum served as a Republican senator from Pennsylvania from 1995 to 2007.