It was famously anti-gay marriage former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, a room full of college kids, and camera from CNN. Who could have predicted a near shouting-match wold occur?
Santorum took questions from students at a town hall meeting at New England College in Henniker, New Hampshire, and gay marriage came up twice. Santorum had started the meeting with a speech about American exceptionalism and how the county’s greatness was based on the founding documents and edicts like “all men are created equal.” When a student asked whether that same idea applied to marriage, Santorum attempted to shift to the idea that if government were to let marriage be anything, then polygamy would be acceptable. When students pushed back and things started getting heated, and cut the discussion short.
When it came up again he went on to cite various benefits of legal marriage and later said that marriage is simply too important to leave to the states, which could produce “50 definitions of marriage.”
At the end of the meeting, Santorum was booed by the students for 5 to 7 seconds as he thanked the crowd and walked off stage.
