Who wants to shower with Rick Santorum?

Republican presidential laughing stock Rick Santorum was on Fox News Sunday yesterday morning.  It depresses me to bring this up, because it's asinine and I resent having to even think (never mind write) about it, but speaking to anchor Chris Wallace he tried to posthumously justify the now historic Don't Ask, Don't Tell farce by suggesting that  gay men showering with straight men in the military would have unspecified scary consequences.

'The problem is that sexual activity with people who you are in close quarters with who happen to be of the same sex is different than being open about your sexuality,' Santorum said.

That quip raised Fox host Chris Wallace's eyebrows, forcing him to ask Santorum if he was suggesting gay soldiers would 'go after' their straight colleagues.

'They're in close quarters, they live with people, they obviously shower with people,' Santorum said.  Note how he calls heterosexuals 'people' but refrains from calling gays the same. The mere presence of gay soldiers (non-people) could have an adverse 'effect on retention and recruitment,' he said.

Ye-olde-trusty gay rapist overwhelming a combat ready Marine in the shower stall myth again. Oddly enough I have never read a single news article that ever demonstrated that this happens. But never let the facts get in the way of an hysterical homophobic muck spreader.

Then Wallace did something unexpected. He cut to a clip of Santorum in that recent booing of a gay soldier Republican primary debate debacle. In the clip Santorum was insisting the repeal of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' was just the Obama administration forcing 'social policy' on the armed forces.

Wallace then read a quote from a former military official and asked Santorum whether he agreed with the statement: 'The army is not a sociological (laboratory). Experiments are a danger to efficiency, discipline and morale and would result in ultimate defeat.'

Santorum said he agreed with the general thrust of the statement. Then Wallace revealed that the quote was from Colonel E.R. Householder, a World War II-era official who was speaking about the racial integration of the military.

Gotcha.

Santorum tried to argue that discriminating against gays isn't the same as discriminating against African Americans because homosexuality is a 'behavior' not a biological 'fact.'

To Santorum you are gay in the same way as you a football player or a Mets fan apparently. It's something that you sort of pick up, and then run with, it's not something biologically innate. How he knows this Santorum didn't say.

The thing is, if homosexuality is biologically innate, then God would have some major explaining to do about inconsistent passages in the Bible and, I suppose, Rick Santorum would be a kinder person than he is.

That's why Santorum is so oddly devoted to this issue - gays are just pawns in a bigger struggle for right wing Christians: they worry if the Bible is wrong about gays and how their orientation is determined (if in fact they are a natural variant of human sexual orientation) then what else is God and the Bible wrong about? Attacking gays is easier than grappling with unfounded certainties.

We understand now that racial intolerance and hatred are wrong. We didn't always. Some of us still don't understand that homophobia is wrong too.

But I have news for you Rick. If you have ever been to a gym, or taken physical education in high school, or played on a baseball team or a football team, or stayed in youth hostel, or gone to the beach, or seen a doctor or a nurse, you've showered or been naked around gay people.

And I see you've survived it. So perhaps there's something wrong with you?