Santorum on Same-Sex Couple Parenting: ‘Best Interest’ of Child to Be Raised by Natural Mother, Father

Wednesday on ABC’s “The View,” co-host Raven-Symoné challenged Republican presidential candidate former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) on “equal marriage rights and the role marriage plays in parenting.

Santorum said, “I would say this—that marriage has a particular role and purpose in society, it always has, and the whole purpose of marriage is to encourage, for society to encourage men and women to come together to form permanent bonds for the benefit of each other. And just like you would say, well, two women coming together—that benefits each other. But the greater purpose of marriage that society has always valued is to bring men and women together so when they have children, there’s a permanent bond by which those children can be raised by their natural mother and natural father. When you have a law that says, as the court said, that marriage has nothing to do with children anymore, what you’re going have—you’re not going have a society encouraging the behavior that is in the best interest of children and the future of society.”

Raven-Symoné said, “I don’t understand why you feel like people in the gay and transgender community can’t raise a very beautiful, smart, intelligent child as well as a man and women. When sometimes, coming from a heterosexual family, there’s a lot more fighting. There’s a lot more stuff going on, sometime, not all of the time, get that straight, not all of the time. I don’t understand why you feel that community can’t give and provide for that child just as well as a straight couple can?”

Santorum said, “Again, I’m not saying that a same-sex couple can’t have a very positive and nurturing environment, but the natural mother and natural father of that child is what historically, and I think sociologically look at today, is in the best interest of that child to be raised by the natural mother and natural father. It’s in the best interest of those parents. And that is really what we want to encourage. We want to encourage that type of bond.”

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