An activist "devoted exclusively to exposing and countering the homosexual activist agenda" has put out a call for columnist Dan Savage to take down his Santorum.com website, a page which has presented GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum with a now-notorious "Google problem."
Peter LaBarbera, president of the Chicago area-based Americans For Truth About Homosexuality, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has identified as as a "hate group," called Savage's site "heinous and malicious web slander" and described it as "advanced cyber-bullying, pure and simple."
LaBarbera issued his missive to Savage on Thursday:
"You are a role model for 'gay' youth, and your 'It Gets Better' video campaign to help kids overcome bullying in their teen years has gained international attention. Yet bizarrely, with apparent ends-justifies-the-means rationale, you yourself have employed heinous bullying methods to malign Mr. Santorum -- tactics you would strongly condemn if used against a self-identified 'gay' kid."
Savage's Santorum.com features a photo of a brown slime-like substance and lists a definition of "santorum" as "the frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the by-product of anal sex." Savage coined the term, which ranks highly upon searching for "Santorum" in search engines, in 2003.
LaBarbera further criticized Savage, who with his husband Terry Miller has a son, in the letter by asking "what did or will you tell him about Santorum.com?"
"Have you no compassion for Rick Santorum’s wife, children and extended family, who too must bear the brunt of your high-tech smear?" LaBarbera continues. "This is calculated character assassination engineered by a 'gay' activist who, ironically, crusades against hate."
In an interview with Mother Jones in 2010, Savage offered a deal to Santorum that he would take the website down if he "wants to make a $5 million donation to [the gay marriage group] Freedom to Marry." It's as yet unclear whether that offer still stands.
On Tuesday, Savage blogged in response to a Huffington Post interview with Elizabeth Santorum, Rick's 20-year-old daughter. Savage questioned Elizabeth's claim that she has gay friends who support her father's presidential campaign:
"Who are these gay people who support Rick Santorum for president despite his having compared sex between consenting adults of the same sex to child rape and dog fucking? Who are these gay people who support Rick Santorum for president despite his having asserted that gay relationships are a threat to 'homeland security?'"
Last year, LaBarbera's group urged Congress not only to uphold the existing federal ban on gay blood donors, but also to launch an "investigation into the health hazards of homosexual behaviors (just as the government studied the dangers of smoking)." The group also sponsored a "Truth Academy" aimed at teaching young people how to fight the homosexuals who are "corrupting" their "hearts and minds."
Santorum last week stated that, if elected president, he would move to "invalidate" now-legal same-sex marriages. In November, he told a Des Moines audience that gay marriage could doom the nation.