Last week, there was a bit of a kerfuffle that happened after Rick Santorum was invited to speak at Grosse Pointe High School in Michigan by a wingnut student group, and then disinvited because he apparently wasn’t cooperating with the school district, but then reinvited after they decided students could attend with their parents’ permission. We didn’t really pay too much attention to the story because So Much Santorum Whining. He’s now complaining about the idea that really good parents in every state would prefer not to have their kids subjected to listening to a whiny hate-monger during school hours:
Grosse Pointe High School students in Michigan will need their parents permission if they attend an assembly to hear Rick Santorum speak. And Santorum just can’t understand why.
At first, the assembly was canceled, with the principal saying Santorum hadn’t sent a copy of his speech for review. Then the principal decided to allow it so long as parents explicitly gave their kids permission to attend. Santorum told Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly that the decision was “disappointing.” He seemed bewildered to be treated, “As if there is something that that person could do to harm your child.”
Santorum during the interview with O’Reilly went on to say that it’s actually marriage equality that would be bad for children. In fact, allowing same-sex marriage stops kids from being born, he argued. “The consequences are you’re going to probably have less children” because, he said, marriage is for procreation. “It’s happening, as we, it’s already happening in America.”
I would probably allow my kids to go, because it would be a teachable moment. “Look, children, this is what unhinged people who spend their lives discriminating against others look like. Avoid them.”
Here’s a David Pakman segment about the whole thing, via The Advocate: