Speaking to an audience in New Hampshire, Santorum said that gay marriage is in direct opposition to his values just as much as polygamy, telling those assembled: “So, everybody has the right to be happy? So, if you’re not happy unless you’re married to five other people, is that OK?”

The crowd reacted angrily to his comments, but shouldn’t have been surprised; in 2003, Santorum said in an interview that gay sex was comparable to incest.

At the time, he told the Associated Press: “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. You have the right to anything. Does that undermine the fabric of our society? I would argue yes, it does.”

He is also reputed to have claimed that gay marriage would lead to bestiality and child rape.

Still, he was speaking to the wrong crowd on this occasion, seeing as New Hampshire has allowed same-sex marriage since 2010.

Students challenged Santorum’s stance in light of his earlier remarks that all men were created equal.

“Don’t you have to make a positive argument that the law should be changed?” Santorum asked the crowd. “You, the person who wants do this, tell me, what is the justification? What is the public purpose?”

Amid a storm of shouted responses, he said: “If it makes three people happy to get married, based on what you just said, what makes that wrong?”

“That’s irrelevant,” a questioner responded. “In my opinion, yeah, go for it. But what I’m asking you is how do you justify your beliefs based on these high morals you have about all men being created equal?”

Santorum said: “God made man and woman, and men and women come together to have a union to produce children, which keeps civilisation going and provides the best environment for children to be raised.”

His closing thanks at the conclusion of the event were greeted with a chorus of boos.

It’s not just homosexuals and gay rights campaigners that Santourm is likely to offend with this extreme views, however. Here’s a collection of our favourite crazy Rick Santorum quotes:

Birth control

“One of the things I will talk about, that no president has talked about before, is I think the dangers of contraception in this country…. Many of the Christian faith have said, well, that’s okay, contraception is okay. It’s not okay. It’s a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be.” (2011)

Career women

“In far too many families with young children, both parents are working, when, if they really took an honest look at the budget, they might find they don’t both need to …. Here, we can thank the influence of radical feminism.” (2005)

The existence of Palestinians

“All the people who live in the West Bank are Israelis, they’re not Palestinians. There is no ‘Palestinian.’ This is Israeli land.” (2011)

Welfare programmes that “make black people’s lives better”

“I don’t want to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money; I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money.” (2012)

Comparing race issues to abortion rights

“The question is – and this is what Barack Obama didn’t want to answer – is that human life a person under the Constitution? And Barack Obama says no. Well if that person – human life is not a person, then – I find it almost remarkable for a black man to say, ‘We’re going to decide who are people and who are not people.'” (2011)

Picture: Getty