Campaign for the neologism "santorum"

Dan Savage at the Webby Awards, holding his award and wearing a t-shirt that reads “GOOGLE SANTORUM”.
Savage wearing a shirt referencing the neologism campaign

The campaign for the neologism "santorum" started with a contest held in May 2003 by Dan Savage, a sex columnist and LGBT rights activist. Savage asked his readers to create a definition for the word "santorum"[1][2] in response to then-US senator Rick Santorum's views on homosexuality and comments about same sex marriage. In his comments, Santorum had stated that "[i]n 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."[3] Savage announced the winning entry, which defined "santorum" as "the frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex." He created a web site, spreadingsantorum.com (and santorum.com), to promote the definition, which became a top internet search result, displacing the senator's official website on many search engines, including Google, Yahoo! Search, and Bing.[4]

In 2010, Savage said he would take the site down if Santorum donated US$5 million plus interest to Freedom to Marry, a group advocating legal recognition of same-sex marriages.[5] In September 2011, Santorum asked Google to remove the definition from its search engine index. Google refused, responding that the company does not remove content from search results except in very limited circumstances.[6]

  1. ^ Wasik, Bill (2009). And Then There's This: How Stories Live and Die in Viral Culture (First ed.). Viking Adult. p. 64. ISBN 978-0-670-02084-3.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference sl031503 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Corvino, John (January 4, 2013). What's Wrong with Homosexuality?. Oxford University Press. p. 120. ISBN 9780199323913. Retrieved April 24, 2013.
  4. ^ Amira, Dan (February 16, 2011). "Rick Santorum Has Come to Terms With His Google Problem". New York. Retrieved May 27, 2011.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference MotherJones was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Burns was invoked but never defined (see the help page).