While defending Indiana's controversial religious freedom law, potential 2016 presidential candidate and former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) questioned whether gay people should be forced to serve members of the anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church and quoted the group's "God Hates Fags" slogan.
Santorum told CBS' Norah O'Donnell that he wished Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) had not signed off on changes to the law that prohibit businesses from using the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to discriminate against gays and lesbians. Santorum said the original law "had better language."
He said that the U.S. needs "to provide more religious protections, and that bill doesn’t do that."
Santorum added that he doesn't think businesses should be able to discriminate against individuals, but should be able to decline to "participate in certain activities."
The former senator referenced the Westboro Baptist Church, an extremist anti-gay group known for protesting an array of high-profile funerals, including for members of the military killed overseas.
"If you’re a print shop and you are a gay man, should you be forced to print ‘God Hates Fags’ for the Westboro Baptist Church because they hold those signs up?” Santorum asked on CBS' "Face The Nation." "Should the government — and this is really the case here — should the government force you to do that?"
"This is about the government coming in and saying, ‘No, we’re going to make you do this.’ And this is where I think we just need some space to say let’s have some tolerance, be a two-way street," he continued.
