Rick Santorum: gay marriage could be the “the destruction of our republic”

Former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum ended a speech at last month’s Midwest Republican Leadership Conference by claiming that gay marriage would be the “destruction of our republic.”

During the speech in defence of the traditional definition of marriage, Santorum stated that the sexual revolution did not affect the definition of marriage “for 30 years” and pointed to popular 90s sitcom Will and Grace as indicative of the homosexual agenda.

“Then a television show came on the air called ‘Will and Grace’ — and look at it from that point on! Because it wasn’t just ‘Will and Grace’ once that happened. It was others and others and others and then the needle started moving,” Santorum said.

Santorum went on to claim that Christians are now afraid to express dissent towards gay marriage because they’ll be branded as bigots and haters, claiming that “Christians are the most tolerant people in the world” but “tolerance is different than approval”.

He concluded by warning that if the Republican Party was to endorse gay marriage, it could mean “the destruction of our republic”.

The former senator has made similar arguments in the past, labelling gay marriage as “suicidal” for the party and arguing that allowing same-sex unions would discourage straight individuals from getting married.