By Jeff Lipton
Rudetsky, 36, a 1984 Hewlett High School graduate, said he was depressed and then infuriated by remarks Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pennsylvania) made to an Associated Press reporter. The senator reportedly said in the interview, If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual [gay] 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.
In a telephone interview last Friday afternoon, Rudetsky said it seems that it is open season on gay people. I can't believe he said that with a straight face, he said of Sen. Santorum.
Rudetsky said he was angered at the remarks and figured out the best way to express his outrage. Rudetsky said he would institute the Senator Rick Santorum Fund and would donate 5 percent of his ticket sales from his show, Rhapsody in Seth, to The Empire State Pride Agenda, New York's gay and lesbian civil-rights organization, in the senator's name.
Rhapsody in Seth, which began in March, recounts the story of a young man's journey from humble beginnings as a showtune-belting adolescent in Nassau County, Long Island, to cosmopolitan musical director and raconteur to Broadway's most delectable divas, according to the show's promotional material.
Rudetsky performs Friday through Monday at the Actors' Playhouse, 100 Seventh Ave. South, in Greenwich Village. Tickets for the show in the 170-seat theater are $35 apiece.
The show is about growing up as a gay child, Rudetsky said. And this was the perfect show to do something political, he said of his donated ticket sales.
Rudetsky said he was shocked that Santorum would lump being gay with incest, which is a horrible and violent crime, and added that it just fuels the fire of gay-bashing in this country. This is a true American, he said of Santorum. Talk about liberty and justice for all. He is seeing to it that homosexuals have the same rights and protection as bigamists and adulterers! ... Thanks, Rick!
Joe Tarver, a spokesperson for The Empire State Pride Agenda, said he appreciated the stand that Rudetsky is taking in response to the senator's remarks. He said the senator did not backpedal from his remarks, saying he had nothing against gay people. But, Tarver said, the senator later couched the statements in legal terms.
In a statement released by the senator's office, Santorum said his interview with the AP was supposed to be a profile focusing on his eight-year tenure in the Senate. As part of the interview, the senator discussed a case being considered by the Supreme Court, Lawrence v. Texas.
When discussing the pending Supreme Court case, Lawrence v. Texas, my comments were specific to the right of privacy and the broader implications of a ruling on other state privacy laws, Santorum said.
In the interview I expressed the same concern as many constitutional scholars, and discussed arguments put forward by the State of Texas as well as Supreme Court justices. If such a law restricting personal conduct is held unconstitutional, so could other existing state laws. Again, my discussion with the Associated Press was about the Supreme Court privacy case, the constitutional right to privacy in general, and in the context of the impact on the family. I am a firm believer that all are equal under the Constitution. My comments should not be misconstrued in any way as a statement on individual lifestyles.
Rudetsky recently visited his alma mater, Hewlett High, during the school's Human Rights Awareness Day, talking with students and describing what it was like growing up gay and overweight on Long Island. He said the experience was the worst 17 years of my life.
He even had to cope with someone writing Queer Boy to describe him in the school's yearbook. He filed a lawsuit and won a $6,000 settlement from the school in 1985, he said.
When he returned to the school on March 25, he saw how the atmosphere had changed. It was a million times better, he said. They even have a gay-straight alliance at Hewlett High School.
Rudetsky was voted New York's Funniest Gay Male at stand-up NY, and is a three-time Emmy-nominated writer for his work as on The Rosie O'Donnell Show.
