GOP Leader Calls Santorum 'Homophobic'

Former three-term Wyoming Senator Alan Simpson (R) recently said that GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum is homophobic, the Wyoming news station KTVQ reported.

"I know Santorum, I served with him," Simpson said. "He is rigid and a homophobic. He believes that gays and lesbians, he mentioned in an interview in 2003, about bestiality, and gays and lesbians. I think that's disgusting."

Simpson, who has supported LGBT rights in the past, says that the Republican Party should focus less on social issues. In a recent CBS News/ New York Times poll the majority of people surveyed said that they feel economic issues are more important than social issues, KTVQ points out.

"Here's a party that believes in government out of your life, the precious right of privacy and the right to be left alone," Simpson said in an interview for CBS' "Face to Face." "How then can they be the hypocrisy of fiddling around in these social issues? We won't have a prayer."

In 2001, Simpson became the honorary chairman of the Republican Unity Coalition -- a gay/straight alliance within the Republican Party. The group reached out to non-traditional GOP members who shared similar personal values. Simpson even recruited President Gerald Ford to serve as the organization's advisory board. In 2003, the organization dissolved as President George W. Bush called for a national ban of same-sex marriage.

In 2007 he told the Washington Post how his views on the LGBT community had changed over the years.

"Since 1993 I have had the rich satisfaction of knowing and working with many openly gay and lesbian Americans, and I have come to realize that 'gay' is an artificial category when it comes to measuring a man or a woman's on-the-job performance or commitment to shared goals," Simpson said.

Santorum has been upfront about his stance on gays and same-sex marriage. Last month, the former Pennsylvania senator told CNN's Piers Morgan that if he is elected president he would make it illegal for same-sex couples to marry across the country.

"And they asked him, well he said I want a Constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage and they said well what about the people who are already married? And he said well they would be nullified," Simpson said of Santorum's views on same-sex marriage. "I mean what is, what's human, what's kind about that? We're all human beings, we all know or love somebody who's gay or lesbian so what the hell is that about? To me it's startling and borders on disgust."

A Los Angeles Times article says that Santorum is the "candidate with the most conservative views on social issues" and questions if his views are too extreme to win the GOP nomination. Besides same-sex marriage, the politician was also against the repeal of the Don't Ask Don't Tell Act, which barred gays from serving openly in the military. Additionally, he has compared gay sex to bestiality.

Santorum is also against abortion even in the cases of rape or incest and opposes contraception. He said it is "a license to do things in the sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be."

Simpson says that he believes the former governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney, has the best chance of beating President Obama in the upcoming election.

"I think that he can win because of the ancient political thing that you know so well, people don't vote for anybody, they vote against," he said. "And if Obama keeps stumbling around in it - but he won't--but if he does, they'll vote against him. And at that point the other guy wins."