Presidential hopeful Rick Santorum says if Bruce Jenner says “he’s a woman, then he’s a woman.” I guess that softening of his heart came after Jenner revealed last Friday that he’s a proud Republican.

Santorum told reporters at the South Carolina Republican Party convention on Saturday:  “My responsibility as a human being is to love and accept everybody. Not to criticize people for who they are,” Buzzfeed reports.

Santorum added, “I can criticize, and I do, for what people do, for their behavior.” “But as far as for who they are, you have to respect everybody, and these are obviously complex issues for businesses, for society and I think we have to look at it in a way that is compassionate and respectful of everybody.”

Um, so does that mean he’s okay with gay marriage? Seems to me he’s saying we have to respect their right to want to marry the person they love. You will recall, Rick Santorum was deadset against gay marriage or any other LGBT issues in the last presidential election cycle.

This was cross-posted from The Hinterland Gazette.

PHOTO: Gage Skidmore [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons