“I know you oppose gay marriage,” Leno said during his interview with Santorum. “I’m not going to change your mind on that even though I think you’re wrong. But that’s OK.”

“I think Barack Obama and Mitt Romney — I think most of the people in political life oppose gay marriage,” Santorum said with a grin. “At least, they say they do.”

“They say they do,” Leno agreed. “I think you really do.”

PART II

“OK. That’s legit,” Santorum replied. “Marriage is an institution that has a defined benefit to society, that moms and dads coming together for the benefit of themselves and having children for the benefit of continuing society going forward is something that is — the government recognizes it is a special union. … This is unique and it provides a unique benefit to society.”

“But [same sex marriage] still benefits society,” Leno argued. “If a child is up for adoption, are you for gay adoption? If a gay couple wants to adopt a child, are you OK with that?”

“I’m not,” the former Pennsylvania senator declared. “Because children need moms and dads.”

“But is an orphanage better?” Leno wondered.

“No, I would say that it’s not,” Santorum admitted.

“I say this from experience,” the late night host explained. “I have friends, gay parents — some women, some men — that are wonderful parents. And they adopt children and these children seem very happy. And to take that away seems [wrong].”

“I would just say that I think children, we should provide for the them the best opportunity,” Santorum insisted. “And the best opportunity is to provide them a healthy mother and father relationship.”

“Yeah, but you can’t always get that,” Leno pointed out.