Have you ever Googled which famous people share your birthday? Here’s a tip. Don’t.
I thought that would be something fun to try this year, although I have no idea what made me think of doing that. Most likely post-drawing-brain-fry need for mindlessness. At least for a few minutes before diving off into the next task.
Experience-wise it started out okay. Even if I was a bit amazed at what is passing for famous. One post was almost nothing but TikTok and YouTube “stars.” Most of them are so young you wonder what’s going to happen after they peak at 22. But then I started getting into the real celebrities/famous names and feeling a little better.
There’s Bono, looking a little long in the tooth, but he is in his early 60s. Kenan Thompson from SNL, who does a wonderfully inappropriate Bill Cosby impression. Linda Evangelista, who I remember from George Michael’s Freedom video, even though I was really jonesing for the guy in the gravity boots and white boxers. (Pardon me while I take a moment. Oof!) Even Fred Astaire made that list. He would be 125 today!
Then the reality of what I was doing hit me in the face. And a good reminder of why you shouldn’t Google famous people who share your birthday.
Former Senator Rick Santorum. Born on May 10, 1958. Really? We have to share a birthday? (Although I am younger.) Not that I’m going to be sending him a card or asking him to hang out. But for a gay man, this isn’t someone I’m proud to share the day with.
For the youngsters out there, think of him as an older version of Ron DeSantis. Just more respectable, personable, and able to smile without creeping everyone out. However, Rick was/is still very anti-queer, although from what felt like a very personal belief perspective. Most politicians today that are spouting anti-queer rhetoric come across as using queer bashing to get elected. Won’t someone please save the children?
Not that having any sincerely held religious dogma makes me feel better about Santorum. This is the Senator and at one time Republican presidential primary contestant who compared man on man sex to man on dog sex. Because clearly one leads to the other? He also felt that if the Supreme Court granted anyone the right to consensual sex in their home, that would grant everyone the right to bigamy, polygamy, and incest.
He must have been disappointed then when they overturned sodomy laws in 2003. I’m just not sure if he was upset that men (and women) were having butt sex or that having consensual sex in private was okay. He did say the right to privacy doesn’t exist in the Constitution. Maybe he was worried he’d start being pressured to have sex.
I did get a fun reminder about columnist and writer Dan Savage’s contest to create a new definition for “santorum.” I won’t repeat that here. This is a respectable blog after all. (HA!) However, I think the 2010 Mother Jones headline Rick Santorum’s Anal Sex Problem might give readers a clue.
Or you can Google. But don’t ask about your birthday.