Rick Santorum Protest: 2 Men Kiss During Rally, Crowd Jeers

Two men interrupted a Rick Santorum event in Illinois with a same-sex kiss, and were promptly ejected by security when the crowd turned on them.

The fracas began in the middle of Santorum's remarks (at the 3:38 mark in the above video clip), when two protesters, identified as Timothy Tross and Ben Clifford, began yelling "mic check!" then embraced before bowing showily to the crowd. When the crowd realizes what was happening, they began to boo and chant "U-S-A!" in unison.

The duo would would not reveal whether they were gay to Palatine Patch reporter Savannah Ziegelbauer, emphasizing Santorum's oft-divisive gay rights policy, not their sexuality, as the important issue. "I don't think the message should be about what my sexuality is," Tross said. "It's the message that he's saying about sexuality that matters."

Santorum was speaking at Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights, Illinois, in advance of the Illinois primary on Tuesday, March 20. His appearance had been expected to draw protests from gay rights supporters, as well as some former high school classmates.

Comments

[DynamicInfo]

04:38 PM on 04/10/2013

Of course he protested -- who the heck wants to see this gross perversion? But get this -- teacher are protesting all over the place -- not just w/this incident, but google, "Teachers protesting..." I can never remember how to spell Santorum''s last name. So I go to google it thinking just he'll come up. Well low and behold -- they're protesting everything moral & Conservative. I do not know about any of you -- but we are paying their salaries AND benefits AND retirement. These are teachers anymore -- they're activists -- and now they want our kids -- what the you know what is going on -- communists -- well I am so livid right now.

[BLTdynomite]

07:20 PM on 04/26/2012

Legalized gay marriage will doubtlessly lead to dog-human, baby-giraffe, episcopalian-dolphin, dolphin-baby, baby dolphin-presbyterian minister marriage. Just like women's and black suffrage is why we now have voting rights for sea cucumbers and porpoises, and like how Brown vs. Board of Education is why we now have iguanas learning algebra side by side with humans.

[Musicalidea]

11:57 PM on 03/31/2012

"Negroes are almost entirely a working people. There are pitifully few Negro millionaires, and few Negro employers. Our needs are identical with labor's needs — decent wages, fair working conditions, livable housing, old age security, health and welfare measures, conditions in which families can grow, have education for their children and respect in the community. That is why Negroes support labor's demands and fight laws which curb labor. That is why the labor-hater and labor-baiter is virtually always a twin-headed creature spewing anti-Negro epithets from one mouth and anti-labor propaganda from the other mouth."

Rev., Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
AFL-CIO Convention, December 1961

The same could be said for those today who speak against immigrants, gays and Muslims. They always need to stoke the wounded pride of the marginalized, poor white voters to misdirect their anger AWAY from those who are oppressing them - the lords of finance, energy, real estate and retail - onto fellow ranks of the oppressed. Divide and conquer, as old as time and as fresh as ever.

[KingAlanI]

07:39 PM on 03/24/2012

well, what did they expect at a Santorum rally?

lots of American exceptionalism and other right-wing talking points and a red meat reaction from the audience even outside of the kiss incident

[BlackVeilBridesRocker]

12:23 PM on 03/22/2012

Hey you little MiSWIRED, "right wing" sympathizers I was ALL for the couple KISS, I openly display MY love and AFFECTION in PUBLIC, in front of ALL you miswired "right wing" children, I do it on purpose , to make you the most uncomfortable , I make you cringe. YOU cannot stop ME, or those I back which are ANONYMOUS, WIKILEAKS, Labrinth, GLBT. HAHAHAHA, got YOU "right wingers" ALL in CHECK WOOOOOOOOOOOOHA. I'm PRO - CHOICE, I'm FOR gay rights & marriage, I stand with ANONYMOUS I support them 100%. I DENOUNCE & do NOT approve of what santorum says, he is a BIGOTED COWARD.

[Ella-Phan]

01:45 AM on 03/22/2012

When last I checked, the core message of the Bible that Santorum claims to have based his platform on was to "love thy neighbor".

Not "discriminate thy neighbor" or "dehumanize thy neighbor", which is what he continues to do with each passing day.

It speaks volumes about how much thought Santorum's supporters have put into agreeing with his platform when the only retort they were able to come up with was chanting "USA". Ironic, seeing as they don't seem to understand the principle of freedom on which America stands.

It was like watching a documentary about mob mentality and I think enough historical evidence has been provided to prove that this never ends well.

[Devin Stepp]

08:41 PM on 03/20/2012

Really Ricky? Medicare, Food stamps and Disability give money to the elites in society? The ones that went to the best schools? Wow. hes just full of useful inaccurate information. And I really cannot stand it when Christians get indignant about their faith while attacking the beliefs of others. No one is saying that you cant believe in your fairytales. But it is not your right to force your moral convictions upon others. There is no constitutional reason to oppose homosexuality. Those guys were not "bullying" anyone. They are a minority group that has been denied equal protection under the law by people like Santorum that believe this country should be governed based on their religious ideas.

[h 4]

10:11 PM on 03/20/2012

Same could be said for bestiality lovers and incest lovers...

just being honest

[Susan Lockhart]

03:26 PM on 03/21/2012

Psychology has time and again debunked any associations between homosexuality and things like zoophilia or incest. Open a book.

[MyOwnSoul]

07:50 PM on 03/21/2012

Animals cannot CONSENT! Children CANNOT CONSENT!

[Volkan Koknar]

07:35 PM on 03/20/2012

This is funny to see radical christians when Americans complain about radical muslims. In every country there are politicians who choose the easy way of manipulation which is religion.

This Santorum man is trying to turn the democratic elections in to the who's more christian referandum. They are doing it in my country (Turkey) and winning for the 3rd time. Because the ignorant people in a nation is always more than the ones who are well educated. So someone who hasn't got political conscious would choose the religious one as the better.
I didn't read what he will do and how he will do on HP more than he will quite homosexuality and porn. He hasn't got proper economic plan.

I'm not American and i don't care whom will be elected our there. But İ believe ın democracy and propoganda usage of the religion should have been limited.

[sexy one]

06:13 PM on 03/20/2012

The government is allowing CORE CREDIT to use American UNTILITY, RENT, PHONE, and MEDICAL BILLS against their CREDIT SCORE Since Rick is trying to stop porn ETC. will he put forth effort stopping CORE CREDIT from damaging struggling Americans further.

[bizzaro birdman]

06:07 PM on 03/20/2012

What did they expect was going to happen? Yes it's wrong they were thrown out, but come on, that's like a black guy showing up at a Klan meeting.

[Volkan Koknar]

07:29 PM on 03/20/2012

Or a gay shown up at Santorum's Klan i guess...

[psuffield]

06:00 PM on 03/20/2012

These guys should be arrested for disrupting a political speech on the nations future. I say send them off to the Cook County Jail and let them stew there for 72 hours!

[BlackVeilBridesRocker]

11:31 PM on 03/22/2012

you PSu child need to be arrested for cruelty, ignorance, and hate crimes towards others as well as TREASON.

[psuffield]

05:57 PM on 03/20/2012

We need to bring back good old fashion Chciago style policing to the northwest subs of Chicago!

[psuffield]

05:56 PM on 03/20/2012

I was appalled when this occured. I was about 10 rows back and farther down on the left hand side when this broke out. At first I couldn't see quite what was happening, but someone next to me told me what was going on. This was a publicity stunt by bunch of dimwitted homos. The crowd went nuts. It was good to see. It would have been better if a couple of beat patrol officers called them out on this and threatened to have them arrested for disorderly conduct and indecent exposeure. But, tsk, tsk, tsk.....the Arilington Heights police department isn't the Chicago Police Department.

[h 4]

10:16 PM on 03/20/2012

I completely agree with you... just because some people are 'into it' doesn't make that behaviour right... its not biologically right just like incest isn't but they have many perverted deranged supporters I guess...

I know the pedos were happy hoping they will be next to win social acceptance.

[DynamicInfo]

04:57 PM on 04/10/2013

Yep -- and this corrupt, morally deficient democrat party will be there to spur them along -- or will they. They might have just pushed it too far.

[Susan Lockhart]

03:28 PM on 03/21/2012

It's funny how those always whining about free speech want to jail men for kissing. It's no surprise to me that conservatives were wanting to uphold slavery, segregation, bans on interracial marriage, and women's disenfranchisement. Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

[psuffield]

04:17 PM on 03/21/2012

@Susan Lochart...this is wasn't about free speech. These two guys were distruptive even before the event started. Once the event got underway they were constantly yelling stuff like open mic and mic check. They should have been escorted out just for interupting the speech on those statements alone. It wasn't untill the crowd went nuts as these two guys stood up to french kiss one another that things started to get out of hand. I was there and you weren't. I know what happened!

These guys did this because they wanted to mess with things. They did this because they wanted to embrass the lead speaker (Mr. Santorum) of the rally and also to prevent the rest of us, who had came to see this speech from being able to hear it, and that alone is considered disorderly conduct.

[TXanimal]

05:09 PM on 03/20/2012

I think it speaks volumes of one's character to be afraid of two men displaying affection for each other.

[Lespal]

05:56 PM on 03/20/2012

Give me a break, that was no "display of affection" and you know it, they did it to cause a stir and it didn't cause a very big one. I think it speaks volumes of one's character when they interrupt a speech at exactly the moment Santorum was talking about all the welfare programs, I'm sure those "children" are just afraid they're gonna have to work for a living.

[TXanimal]

10:17 AM on 03/21/2012

Give ME a break. Even if it weren't a protest, if it were just two guys kissing, you'd still have a problem.

It was a protest. Deal with it.

[h 4]

10:17 PM on 03/20/2012

Afraid? It's disgusting... as disgusting as bestiality or incest.

[TXanimal]

10:42 AM on 03/21/2012

LOL, so don't do it!

Just like I don't kiss people of the opposite sex. But I don't act like a baby about it and compare it to bestiality or incest, no matter how gross I think it is.

[NC Democrat 12]

04:58 PM on 03/20/2012

All this rukus over a kiss, how droll.

[DynamicInfo]

05:01 PM on 04/10/2013

you deserve the decline of a once great nation