🤮 how queer activists ruined a politician’s name forever 🤮

QUEER WORD
SANTORUM

What It Means:

A neologism used to refer to the frothy mixture of lubricant and faecal matter sometimes produced during anal sex. And, somewhat unfortunately for one particular American politician, also his surname.

Let’s Use It In A Sentence:

I knew I shouldn't have bothered changing the sheets last night. Perry came over and now there's santorum all over the bed.

Time For A Bit Of Pettiness?

Here's a lesson for any would-be politicians or public figures who want to vilify the queer community in order to further their careers: be prepared for creative and (probably deeply) humiliating retaliation from said community.

Whether it's a pie-in-the-face for Anita Bryant or lesbians abseiling into the House of Lords to protest anti-LGBT laws, we sure do like to make a headline-grabbing scene.

And perhaps the most humiliating example of all? 

The word santorum.

Intrigued? You should be.

How a Senator Became a Slang Term

So, first of all… why is it called santorum?

Well, this particular term is named after Rick Santorum, a conservative US politician who served as a senator for Pennsylvania from 1995 to 2007.

Following so far?

Good.

The obvious next question you likely have, then, is: how did the byproduct of anal sex come to be named after a conservative US politician?

To answer that, we have to travel back to 2003.

As you might imagine, as a conservative politician Rick Santorum didn’t have especially kind things to say about the queer community. And after he made some particularly stinky comments in an interview with the Associated Press, sex columnist and LGBTQ+ rights activist Dan Savage decided he’d had enough.

Savage shared his thoughts about the comments in a column in The New York Times. Afterwards, a reader suggested holding a contest to create a new definition for santorum.

Savage agreed.

Within a few weeks, more than 3,000 entries had come in. And the winning definition was:

But It Doesn’t End There

Remember how I said the queer community can be splashy and headline-grabby when we’ve got something to protest?

Well, that’s exactly the tactic Savage employed. Rather than simply celebrating the winning entry, having a good giggle, and then moving on, he instead decided to go all in.

He set up spreadingSantorum.com, a website dedicated to the new definition. He promoted it relentlessly in his column and during interviews. He encouraged readers to link to it, share it, and search for it on Google, all in an attempt to game the search rankings and make sure the new definition appeared above any mention of the actual politician.

And it worked.

The campaign was so successful that the new definition of Santorum became the top result on multiple search engines, including Google, Bing and Yahoo.

All these years later, it still hovers deliciously near the top.

Which is, you have to admit, quite the legacy.

And How Did Santorum Respond to ‘Santorum’?

At first, he seemed to try to shrug it off, muttering about ‘vulgarity’ and saying that being on the receiving end of this kind of prank ‘comes with the territory’.

But almost a decade later, in September 2011, Santorum asked Google to intervene and change how the results were indexed, arguing that a responsible company shouldn’t allow that kind of ‘filth’ to be spread through its system.

Which suggests that, by this stage, he was perhaps a little more bothered than he’d first let on.

Google, to its credit, declined to get involved, stating that it did not remove content from search results except in very limited cases (such as illegal content or violations of its webmaster guidelines).

Brilliant!

So What’s the Lesson Here?

When Rick Santorum started his political career he probably had aspirations to leave a lasting legacy in his name.

And he has. Just not in the way he might have hoped.

The neologism stuck.

Even now, years later, if you Google Santorum, the first thing you’ll see isn’t his political legacy, his speeches, or the policies he helped implement.

It’s… well, you know.

His name has been permanently overshadowed by a definition created as revenge for his bigotry.

Which sure does feel like a useful lesson for any politician tempted to build a career on hatred.

Attack queer people, and they might just redefine you.

Literally.