CNN's Jake Tapper suggests Rick Santorum rightly blamed gay sex for polygamy

CNN host Jake Tapper devoted over seven minutes on Monday to debate whether allowing LGBT people to have sexual relationships was to blame after a federal judge found parts of Utah's anti-polygamy law unconstitutional.

In 2003, then-Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) had warned that 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."

After a federal judge ruled that Utah laws prohibiting cohabitation with other persons violated the First Amendment right to freedom of religion, Santorum declared victory on Twitter.

"Some times I hate it when what I predict comes true," he wrote.

While filling in for CNN host Erin Burnett on Monday, Tapper used that tweet as the basis for an entire seven minute segment, allowing Family Research Council (FRC) President Tony Perkins, the head of a known anti-LGBT "hate group", to explain why homosexual sex was to blame for the judge's ruling.

"Now Rick Santorum says he was right. Was he?" Tapper asked.

"Well, it is the same progression that we saw with same-sex marriage," Perkins opined. "And the judge in this case maid a lot of reference to Lawrence V. Texas, which is use what Santorum was talking about."

"In fact, [Justice Antonin Scalia] himself predicted this would occur over a decade ago," he added. "So, they may not, you know, there are maybe some who don't want to equate sister wives with same-sex marriage. But it is the deconstruction of natural marriage. You know, if the judge can arbitrarily change the qualities of marriage, a man and woman, the quantities are easy to change. And that's what we see happening right here."

Perkins argued that the "real war on women" began with the Supreme Court's 2003 Lawrence v. Texas ruling, which struck down sodomy laws in Texas and effectively banned them in the rest of the country. At the time, Santorum had compared the decision to “man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be.”

"It is the deconstruction of marriage that has brought us to this. Lawrence v. Texas was the starting gun, while this just decriminalizes polygamy," Perkins said. "And this is going to be a big immigration issue as well with 50 countries that recognize polygamy. When they are knocking at the door to come into the country, mostly Muslim countries, we're going to see women become a real target in this country. And, again, you want to talk about a war on women, this is it."

Documentary filmmaker Laurie Allen, who was born into polygamy, objected to the idea of the entire segment.

"It is ridiculous to even compare the two because, you know, polygamy is about harems and prostitution and the subjugation of women and the abuse of children and women," she said. "It has nothing to do with two couples, to a male and female or man and a man or a woman and woman who love each and want to live a married life. I mean, this is about concubines. It is about criminal acts and then fortunately these laws are not being enforced in the state of Utah."

"And we need to do something about this and not listen to people like Rick Santorum who don't know what they're talking about."

Watch the video below from CNN's Out Front, broadcast Dec. 16, 2013.

(h/t: Media Matters)