Via Towleroad, Rick Santorum — who recently reiterated his support for a constitutional amendment outlawing same sex marriage — tells openly gay CNN anchor Don Lemon that he has a lot of gay friends:

SANTORUM: In fact, I was with a gay friend of mine just yesterday. So yea, I do. And they respect that I have differences of opinion on that, I talk about these things in front of them, and we have conversations about it. They differ from me, but they know I love them because they’re my friends.

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In 2003, Santroum compared homosexuality to incest and bestiality, saying, “In every society, the definition of marriage has not ever to my knowledge included homosexuality. That’s not to pick on homosexuality. It’s not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be.” “If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything,” he added.

This morning, during an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union, former Utah Governor and likely 2012 presidential contender Jon Huntsman reiterated his support for civil unions, saying that the Republican party has not done enough “in the name of equality”:

HUNTSMAN: Do I favor civil unions? Yeah, I favor civil unions. I don’t think we have done enough in the name of equality in the area of — or at reciprocal beneficiary rights. Will some people –

CROWLEY: Hospital visitation, and –

HUNTSMAN: Sure. Sure, it’s — whatnot. Will some people hold that against me? It’s OK. You got to be who you are and march forward. Some people will like it.
And I believe that in the end people will look at the totality of what it is you stand for, the totality of what you’ve done, and then make an informed decision.

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Huntsman is alone among the candidates for the Republican Party’s 2012 presidential nomination to endorse civil union, which he first embraced in February 2009. As governor, he supported “legislation intended to give same-sex and other non-traditional couples some of the rights available through marriage.” “I’m a firm believer in the traditional construct of marriage, a man and a woman,” he said. “But I also think that we can go a greater distance in enhancing equal rights for others in nontraditional relationships.”