With the pesky Michele Bachmann out of the way, the LGBT focus in the GOP primary process has turned to former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Penn). The current “top tier” GOP presidential candidate was on-hand at a New England College-sponsored conference yesterday and was confronted by students over same-sex marriage during a Q&A session.

Santorum's positions on same-sex marriage, gays and lesbians in the military and pornography are no secret. Check out Ryan Lee's cover story previewing the primary elections for background on Santorum and the other remaining GOP contenders.

While answering a question on his views about same-sex marriage, Santorum compares such unions to polygamy and berates an audience member on the definition of “harming another person.”

In all fairness, it was a hostile environment for Santorum, a left-leaning New England college, but that's exactly why the confrontation is so important. Anti-gay GOP candidates are going to have a really hard time convincing young voters to support them when they don't support equality. This video just reinforces it.

The trend is not in the anti-gay favor. It's in ours. Take a recent Pew analysis on young people's support for marriage equality: “People in their early thirties today have a relatively favorable view of gay marriage and their views are similar to those of younger generations.”

Marriage equality is an important issue for younger voters. Many of us see it as the defining civil rights issue of our times. Several polls conducted last year found, for the first time in the country's history, more people favor allowing marriage rights than not. That result would have been a pipe dream in the year before the 2000 presidential election.

Rick Santorum and the other GOP contenders will be made to see that anti-gay, wingnut politicians will be confronted at every turn, during every Q&A and thoroughly bashed online. But Santorum already knows a little something about that.

Top photo: Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Penn) (via Facebook)