Romney fed the hate
By Sue O’Connell
Jan. 25, 2012
Tax returns show contributions to anti-gay groups.
Presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s charitable foundation gave $35,000 to antigay groups in 2010, including $10,000 to the Massachusetts Family Institute. Massachusetts’ citizens are familiar with the Institute’s efforts to continue discrimination against the transgender community by running ads claiming that the passage of the trans rights bill would lead to crime in public bathrooms. The Massachusetts Family Institute is also the organization that sponsored the 2007 anti-same-sex marriage amendment.
CNN has detailed reports on Romney’s charitable giving and notes that $25,000 from Romney’s foundation went to the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. The Becket Fund defended the Mormon Church against lawsuits after the church’s involvement in financially backing California’s Proposition 8 was revealed.
The contributions are in stark contrast to the face Romney’s presents during debates and campaign stops. Romney has repeatedly stated that he will not discriminate.
Romney’s most recent denial of LGBT support latest in decades-long flip-flop
By Hannah Clay Wareham
Jan. 11, 2012
The 2002 flyer that was passed out at Boston Pride. Romney's camp has denied that the document was official, but a former intern is speaking out. The former MA gov’s presidential campaign denies he OK’d pro-gay message released at 2002 Pride.
A former intern for Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney says that contradictory to the camp’s statements, the former Massachusetts governor did authorize flyers in 2002 that championed LGBT rights. The conflict is only the most recent in decades of both endorsement and criticism of legalized same-sex marriage, DADT, and other equal rights efforts.
The Manhattan Institute’s Josh Barro told BuzzFeed that "a full-time staffer" organized the dissemination of pink flyers stating Romney’s support for LGBT equal rights. On Jan. 8, one of Romney’s campaign spokesmen told The Huffington Post that the fliers were not campaign literature, despite the fact that "Paid for by the Romney for Governor Committee" was printed on the bottom of each flyer.
"I don’t know where those pink flyers came from. I was the communications director on the 2002 campaign. I don’t know who distributed them. ...I never saw them and I was the communications director," Eric Fehrnstrom, Romney’s chief spokesman, told The Huffington Post.
Barro told BuzzFeed that, "On pride weekend, the campaign sent a contingent of about a half-dozen of us to the post-parade festival on Boston Common to hand out those flyers." In addition to denying knowledge of the flyers, Fehrnstorm also said that Romney had never supported civil union rights for same-sex couples.
"He has not been in favor of civil unions, if by civil unions you mean the equivalency to marriage but without the name marriage. What he has favored, and he talked about this, I believe, last night, was a form of domestic partnership or a contractual relationship with reciprocal benefits," Fehrnstorm said.
Romney has come under fire during his bid for the presidency for having apparently contradicted his stance on legalized same-sex marriage, among other issues.
"Basically I see the provision of basic civil rights and domestic partnership benefits [as] a campaign against [then-House Speaker] Tom Finneran. I see Tom Finneran and the Democratic leadership as having opposed the application of domestic partnership benefits to gay and lesbian couples and I will support and endorse efforts to provide those domestic partnership benefits to gay and lesbian couples," Romney told Bay Windows in an interview published Oct. 24, 2002.
In a 1994 letter written to the Massachusetts Log Cabin Club during his bid to unseat Sen. Ted Kennedy, Romney pledged to be a hero for the LGBT community. An October Bay Windows article from that same year credits Romney with the following: "For some voters it might be enough for me to simply match my opponent’s record in this area. But I believe we can and must do better. If we are to achieve the goals we share, we must make equality for gays and lesbians a mainstream concern. My opponent cannot do this. I can and will."
"I respect all people regardless of their differences," Romney told Bay Windows in 1994. "There’s something to be said for having a Republican who supports civil rights in this broader context, including sexual orientation. ...I think the gay community needs more support from the Republican party and I would be a voice in the Republican party to foster anti-discrimination efforts."
Ten years later, while serving as Governor of Massachusetts, Romney backed a state constitutional amendment that would have banned legal recognition of same-sex marriage, albeit allowed civil unions for gay and lesbian couples. Following the state’s legalization of marriage equality, Romney pulled from the annals of Bay State history a 1913 law barring out-of-state couples from tying the knot in the state -- a law originally designed to block interracial couples hailing from states that banned interracial marriage from marrying in Massachusetts. In 2005, Romney threw his weight behind a petition effort driven by the politically conservative Coalition for Marriage & Family that would have banned legalized same-sex marriage, and did not offer civil unions. In 2004 and again in 2006, Romney urged the U.S. Senate to vote in favor of and make law the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would have banned same-sex marriage on the federal level. The amendment failed in 2006.
The Republican presidential hopeful’s back and forth on LGBT rights hasn’t been missed by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender voters -- nor has it been missed by his GOP opponents. The American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer referred to Romney as a "non-starter," Right Wing Watch reported in December, referring to an interview Romney gave the Des Moines Register in which he said he was no longer opposed to a repeal of "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell," the military’s ban on gay men and lesbians serving openly. "If evangelical Christians simply vote their values, there is simply no way they can cast a vote for someone who is in favor of legitimizing homosexual behavior in the military. ...In the GOP field, there are just two candidates who support the presence of sexual deviancy in our armed forces: Mitt Romney and Ron Paul." Former GOP opponent Michele Bachmann (she recently dropped out of the presidential race after bombing in the Iowa caucuses) accused Romney of being "confused" about his values.
"Mitt Romney has defended gay marriage and even signed marriage licenses for same-sex couples," the Minnesota legislator said in Iowa, pledging that she’d defend and protect "marriage and family" if elected.
Most recently, Romney won big in New Hampshire primaries, finishing with 39.4 percent of the vote in a state currently divided over its law legalizing same-sex marriage. The contentious debate over a possible repeal of said law is expected to take center stage in state and New England politics this year.
Reality Check: Romney’s old tricks fooled the Bay State and might work on an entire nation
By Jeff Epperly
Jan. 11, 2012
As of this writing, the clown car known as the GOP field of candidates in the New Hampshire primary appears to have come down to, in order of vote totals: Romney, Paul, Huntsman, Gingrich, Santorum, Other, Perry and Bachmann. (Yes, the choice "of Other received more votes than Perry and Bachmann combined, and this was after Bachmann dropped out.) What this means -- and this is definitely damning with faint praise -- is that New Hampshire Republicans appear to be less nutty than the Republicans in Iowa who gave a close second place to a guy who compares gay sex to bestiality. Romney’s victory was somewhat weak given how much financial and organizational effort he expended in what amounts to his own political backyard, but that is not stopping the stenographers in the mainstream media (MSM) from inching toward lending his campaign an air of inevitability. And once the MSM and right-wing echo chamber choose a Republican candidate, the primaries might just as well be over given how easily led the Republican base has proven itself to be. Which means we will likely be looking at an Obama-Romney matchup, which is worrying because we already know how the Romney machine excels at obfuscation. This is a man who managed to fool the entire Commonwealth and get elected as governor in the bluest state in the nation. Romney and his reptilian press spokesperson Eric Fehrnstrom know how to play the by endlessly working the MSM’s two chief weaknesses: 1) they see providing balance only as presenting everyone’s point of view on equal footing, no matter how blatantly one side might be lying, and 2) MSM journalists tend to protect people who look and feel like them. After all, it was only on Jan. 7 that the president of MSNBC acknowledged that longtime talking head and onetime commentator Pat Buchanan was finally and perhaps permanently banned from the network because of the controversy surrounding his latest book. Buchanan even managed at one time to get a semi-regular commenting gig on Rachel Maddow’s program.
This latest Buchanan dust-up is ostensibly because of the white nationalism and ethnocentrism plainly on display in Buchanan’s latest book. But Buchanan has such a long history of shady political dealings, racism, homophobia and sexism dating back to the Nixon administration, that the only possible explanation for his continued appearance on television is that the good old boys club of journalism is comfortable with him as a person. Back when Buchanan last ran for president, I called ABC commentator Jeff Greenfield for a phone interview -- he and Buchanan were old friends -- and I recited a litany of Buchanan’s sins, including his praise for Hitler and his white supremacism, all of which were plainly evident in a paper trail of Buchanan writings wirting and utterances since the 1960s. "Isn’t it obvious," I asked Greenfield, "that Buchanan is getting a free pass from his friends in the mainstream media who ask about none of these issues?" It was telling that Greenfield instead got angry with me, accusing me of dredging up old grudges in a bid to smear Buchanan. That’s when I learned that these guys protect their own more vociferously than any teachers’ union. This works to Romney’s advantage because the good old boys love rich white guys and Ferhnstrom is a former reporter for the Boston Herald.
But what Romney and Fehrnstrom understand better than most people is how just-slick-enough candidates can simply ignore inconvenient facts that reflect badly on the candidate and just keep repeating their tainted version of the truth, because MSM journalists excel at being stenographers rather than analysts. Take the recent controversy over the Romney campaign’s denial that he was ever as strong a supporter of LGBT rights as he appeared to be during his U.S. Senate campaign against Ted Kennedy. There is absolutely no denying that Romney said, among other things, that he would be better than Kennedy on gay rights. He said it in an interview. This newspaper has as proof the front page -- a story and front page I helped to edit and lay out -- specifically stating those very facts. I remember having discussions at the time we ran that story that it all appeared to be a little too good to be true, but that it was nonetheless big news and it belonged at the top of the front page. There also exist Romney gay pride flyers more than one former campaign worker says are legitimate. Nonetheless, Romney has managed to tamp this story down in the MSM simply by saying the political flyers were not approved by Romney. As for the interviews he gave in this newspaper -- just ignore those long enough, and the MSM reporters will move on to something sexier. These are the same tactics that Romney will use if he makes it to the general election. The question is: will the American electorate be fooled as easily as Bay State voters when a right-wing ultra-wealthy corporate raider insists he a moderate who is worried about jobs and the middle class?
Romney's gay history haunts him – again
By Laura Kiritsy
Jan. 28, 2008
RoeGone.org, a new 527 billing itself as the conservative answer to the progressive rabble-rousers at MoveOn.org, has produced quite an attack ad against Mitt Romney. It's a doozy. The group is reportedly raising money to air the spot in Super Tuesday states later this week, according to a RoeGone.org press release announcing the ad. Below is the script for the 60-second spot. Looks like Romney's been swiftboated.
Romney: "Look at my record as governor"
"Governor Mitt Romney challenged voters to look at his record. RoeGone.org has done just that," said spokesperson Sharon Blakeney, a lawyer in Boerne, Texas.
Blakeney said the group is raising money to place the ad on television in Super Tuesday states later this week. The group also plans to produce ads addressing other politicians' stand on similar issues, she said.
RoeGone.org is a pro-life organization committed to the appointment of judges who will support overturning Roe v. Wade.
Full script of ad:
In the Florida debate, Governor Mitt Romney said:
"I can point to a very simple way to find out exactly where I stand, and that is look at my record as governor."
Really?
As governor, Mitt Romney issued an executive order forcing justices of the peace to perform homosexual weddings, or resign. Then he ordered marriage licenses changed to read "party A" and "party B" -- instead of "husband" and "wife."
As governor, Romney appointed a board member of the Lesbian and Gay Bar Association to the bench, and appointed more Democrat judges than Republicans.
As governor, Romney authored and signed a mandatory heath insurance plan backed by Ted Kennedy -- including taxpayer-funded abortion on demand.
As governor, Romney overruled his own health department and forced Catholic hospitals to distribute the morning after abortion pill.
Homosexual marriage?
Tax-funded abortions?
Catholic hospital morning after pills?
Homosexual activist judges?
"Look at my record as governor."
Romney surrogates do his anti-gay bidding
By Laura Kiritsy
Jan. 11, 2008
In its Campaign Notebook column, the Boston Globe today has a short piece on Mitt Romney's latest campaign ad, which features Michigan Congressman Pete Hoekstra and his wife touting Romney's 'Michigan values.' Here's the gist:
In the spot, Representative Pete Hoekstra and his wife, Diane, say that Romney will cut taxes, lower spending, and create jobs - a huge issue in the economically depressed state. They also vouch for Romney's Michigan connections.
"Governor Mitt Romney represents the values that are important to us," Diane Hoekstra says. "He will fight for the unborn and traditional marriage."
"Mitt Romney's values are Michigan values," Pete Hoekstra chimes in.
Will he never give up?
Romney pisses off the gays and those who hate them
By Laura Kiritsy
Dec. 5, 2007
You know things are looking bad for Mitt Romney when local conservative talk radio host Michael Graham sums up Romney's presidential campaign strategy this way: "Tell me what I'm supposed to say to get elected president and I'll say it." Graham was sounding off on his Dec. 5 show in the context of a Boston Globe story revealing that Romney has undocumented immigrants doing the landscaping at his Belmont home hit the streets. The Globe published a similar tale just about a year ago. This from a candidate who's crisscrossed the country railing against the plague of illegal immigration and pledging for support for every measure conceivable to seal the country's borders and ship out the hedge-trimming interlopers who do manage to sneak in. Of course, Graham could have been referring to any of Romney's electoral bids -- like his 1994 Senate run, where he pledged to be a stronger advocate for gay rights than rival Sen. Ted Kennedy, or his 2002 gubernatorial bid, in which he (and Kerry Healey, his hand-picked choice for lieutenant governor) adamantly insisted that he supported reproductive choice. As John Lovitz's beloved Saturday Night Live character Tommy Flanagan, the Pathological Liar would say, "Yeah! That's the ticket!"
Romney's latest bout of hypocrisy dovetails with the launching of a new radio ad in New Hampshire -- where Romney has consistently led in polls -- by his former friends at Log Cabin Republicans, the gay organization he courted in 1994 and 2002 with a love letter (in which he made his aforementioned pledge to out-gay Kennedy) and pretty pink fliers pledging his support for equality distributed at the 2002 Boston Pride Parade by the openly gay Republican volunteering on his campaign. The Log Cabin ad begins with the fashion conscious warning, "Mitt-Flops...sounds like something you'd wear to the beach, but they could cost you." The announcer then accuses the former Bay State governor for balancing the state budget on the backs of New Hampshirites who worked in Massachusetts by taxing their income and pensions, as well as other tax transgressions, like opposing Bush's tax cuts. This from a presidential candidate who was among the first to sign a "no new taxes" pledge.
The radio ad comes after Log Cabin's Iowa TV ad in September that hit the candidate for his switch on reproductive choice and for his 1994 disavowal of conservative Republican icon Ronald Reagan, who Romney now cites as a personal hero.
Log Cabin President Patrick Sammon said the group is not endorsing in the primary race. So why pick on Romney? After all, just about all of the GOP contenders have flip-flops in their size. Just not as many as Romney. "Mitt Romney is far and above the candidate who has flip-flopped the most on a range of issues," said Sammon. "I may disagree with someone like Mike Huckabee" -- who has erased Romney's lead in a recent Iowa poll -- "on some issues but I respect that he's a man of principle who has deeply held beliefs." Republicans aren't going to agree on everything, Sammon adds, but the GOP should understand the importance of electing "leaders who have principle and who have character and who aren't cynical politicians who are willing to say and do anything to win." Is the gay Republican on the same page as the right-wing talk radio host? Maybe Mitt's in more trouble than we thought.
Political intelligence
It didn't take Dee Dee Edmondson, the legislative director for openly gay former state Sen. Jarrett Barrios, long to get over her old boss, even though she confesses that his departure from Beacon Hill for a private sector gig last summer, "took the wind out of my sails." In October, Edmondson, who is also openly gay, joined the public affairs team at Rasky Baerlein Strategic Communications, a firm that counts the Red Sox and Northeastern University among its clients. Edmondson will once again be roaming the State House halls, now as a lobbyist. That is, after she abides by the one-year prohibition of lobbying by former legislators and staffers. A press release announcing Edmondson's hiring noted her "expertise in legislative and legal research, gathering political intelligence and conducting government outreach." Naturally, we zeroed in on Edmondson's reported expertise in political intelligence collection given that it evokes images of intrigue like hotel break-ins, rooting through White House trash for cigars and hacking into computers to recover dirty IMs. Alas it's not that glam, said Edmondson of political dirt-digging: "You just talk to people."
The gay behind Romney's 2002 Pride flier
By Laura Kiritsy
Oct. 1, 2007
Thanks to a flurry of recent stories highlighting Mitt Romney's shifting stances on a host of issues, that thorny old Boston Pride flier from Romney's 2002 gubernatorial campaign - the one on pink paper that proclaims, "Mitt and Kerry Wish You A Great Pride Weekend! All citizens deserve equal rights, regardless of their sexual preference"- has resurfaced once again. (Sadly, only the anti-gay MassResistance has properly credited Bay Windows with bringing the flyer to the public's attention; progressive bloggers and mainstream news organizations have been alternately crediting MassResistance, which took it from our website, other blogs and even, in one instance, ABC News. But we digress...) Even better, this time around, a former volunteer on Romney's 2002 campaign is claiming credit for authoring the flier, and it's none other than Aaron Maloy. Maloy, you'll recall, is the openly gay, anti-gay-marriage Republican who freaked out half the lower Cape when he narrowly won the 2006 GOP primary for the open 4th Barnstable District House seat (he lost the general election to openly gay Democrat Sarah Peake). Under a recent post about the flier on Massachusetts Democrat, one of the many political blogs at CapeCodToday.com, Maloy left this little nugget: "OMG!!! I didn't realize this got attention. I was actually responsible for this flyer when I was an intern on Mitt's campaign."
Given Maloy's outspoken opposition to marriage equality during his campaign, the defense of Romney that followed his revelation wasn't surprising: "Let's make one thing clear," Maloy wrote. "Equality does not necessarily mean gay marriage. Mitt Romney believes everyone should be equal. That can be achieved without altering the definition of marriage. Geesh!!" Also not surprising was one of the response's to Maloy's post: "Another reason it's a good thing Aaron did not get elected!" - but we digress.
We were unable to speak directly with Maloy before press time to request proof that he's the guy behind the flier, but it's not a stretch to believe that Maloy, who's as out about being gay as he is true to the GOP's anti-gay-marriage agenda, is telling the truth. In an email to Bay Windows, he elaborated a bit on his mindset at the time: "I had just turned 19 when I was interning for Mitt. He had a ton of gay people on his campaign in senior positions so I figured it would be an acceptable thing to do." And though you may disagree with Maloy's politics, give him some credit: At least he's not toe-tapping in some highway rest stop on Route 3.
Mitt Romney’s 1994 letter to gay Republicans
By Bay Windows staff
Dec. 9, 2006
‘I need your support more than ever’
On Dec. 8 Bay Windows obtained a copy of a letter Gov. Mitt Romney wrote to the Log Cabin Club of Massachusetts in 1994. At the time the letter was written, Romney was in a heated campaign against U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy. In the letter, Romney, who is an all-but-declared candidate for president in 2008 and who has made opposition to civil marriage rights for same-sex couples one of his signature issues, pledged to be a more effective leader on gay civil rights than Kennedy. He promised to cosponsor the federal Employment Nondiscrimination Act and expand the legislation to include protections for gay men and lesbians in housing and credit. He also pledged to back the creation of “a federal panel to find ways to reduce gay and lesbian youth suicide …”
The letter, which is written on “Romney US Senate” letterhead, was widely reported on at the time. In an Oct. 20, 1994 oped, Boston Herald columnist Don Feder said that the letter proved that “Romney is the Mormon Bill Weld, the man he looks to for inspiration. Nowhere is his social radicalism more apparent than on the cutting-edge moral issue of our age — the normalization of homosexuality.”
On Dec. 9, the New York Times quoted from the 1994 letter and noted that Romney aides “did not dispute the letter’s legitimacy.” Bay Windows determined the letter’s authenticity by comparing quotes from the letter from 1994 news reports on the letter published in Bay Windows, the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald. Bay Windows also considered the credibility of the source — a former officer of the Log Cabin Club — who provided a copy of the letter to Bay Windows.
Follow that trail
By Laura Kiritsy
Dec. 6, 2006
Publication of an editorial in Bay Windows referencing a 1994 letter Mitt Romney wrote during his 1994 U.S. Senate bid to unseat Ted Kennedy unleashed a frenzied effort by media researchers and activists to find the letter. In the letter, which was written to the Massachusetts Log Cabin Club, Romney pledged to provide more effective leadership on gay equality than his opponent, U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy (See "Mitt Romney: Garden variety bigot or political opportunist?" Nov. 23).
Globe columnist Joan Vennochi referenced the editorial and the letter in a column Nov. 26 in which she opined that despite the governor's rightward shift on marriage and abortion, "All the political theatrics in the world can't change the record." Conservative pundit Andrew Sullivan linked to the Bay Windows editorial in a Nov. 30 blog post titled "Pro-gay Romney," also highlighting the Log Cabin letter. Last Sunday, Sullivan appeared on MSNBC's The Chris Matthews Show, and, referencing again Romney's pledge to out-gay Kennedy, observed that while Romney's Mormon faith "may go down with" the evangelical Christian base he's now courting "being pro-gay will not." And, in preparation for an upcoming interview with Romney, a producer from MSNBC's Meet the Press has contacted Bay Windows, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and current Mass. Log Cabin president Michael Motzkin looking for a copy of Romney's letter to the organization. The national Log Cabin Republicans were also contacted by Meet the Press, and several New Hampshire and New England-area newspapers have made inquiries about the letter with Log Cabin members, said Jimmy LaSalvia, the group's national field consultant.
An original copy of the letter has yet to surface. But on Oct. 17, 1994, the Globe reported that Romney wrote to the group and said, "as we seek to establish full equality for America's gay and lesbian citizens, I will provide more effective leadership than my opponent." An Oct. 13, 1994 Bay Windows article also quoted from Romney's letter: "For some voters it might be enough for me to simply match my opponent's record in this area. But I believe we can and must do better. If we are to achieve the goals we share, we must make equality for gays and lesbians a mainstream concern. My opponent cannot do this. I can and will."
Brad Luna, HRC's director of media relations, isn't surprised at the interest in the Log Cabin letter. "It really brings to light what the GLBT community has known about Mitt Romney for years. He's more than willing to use the GLBT community for political gain and has very readily bashed GLBT people to impress and ingratiate himself with the right wing of his party," he observes.
"How can you run for Senate in 1994 and send a letter saying that you'll be better than Ted Kennedy on GLBT issues and then make it a cornerstone of your exploration into the '08 presidential campaign ... to be the lead voice right now on bashing GLBT people and our rights?" Luna says. "I think it just is really going to spotlight that Mitt Romney will do or say anything to get elected."
Mitt Romney's secret gay history!
By Ethan Jacobs
March 3, 2005
Governor Romney has been touring the country in the past few weeks, courting anti-gay right-wingers in South Carolina, Missouri, and Utah with speeches designed to show that he is firmly in their camp. Yet a look at Romney's record shows that his Rick Santorum drag act is a relatively new phenomenon.
Indeed, years before Romney ran for governor, he took several pro-gay stances in his unsuccessful 1994 Senate campaign against Ted Kennedy. According to an Oct. 17 Boston Globe article that year, Romney courted Mass. Log Cabin for their endorsement, promising them in a letter that, "as we seek to establish full equality for America's gay and lesbian citizens, I will provide more effective leadership than my opponent." Romney won that endorsement, in part due to his support of the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).
During that race Romney also won Republican Gov. William Weld's endorsement, and he said he was in step with the famously pro-gay governor on many issues, including same-sex marriage. According to an Oct. 21 article in the Globe, when Romney was asked whether he supported same-sex marriage, he answered, "I am sure [Weld] will study it and evaluate it and I will endorse his position on that." (At the time Weld had not come out in favor of same-sex marriage, but he has done so since the Goodridge decision. No such endorsement of Weld's position by Romney has been forthcoming.)
Romney also went to great lengths to dispel charges of homophobia leveled against him for his role as a lay leader in the Mormon Church. A July 15 Globe article alleged that Romney had told a congregation of about 300 Mormons that same-sex relationships were "perverse" in November 1993. Romney's campaign responded with a statement saying that Romney respected "all people regardless of their race, creed, or sexual orientation" and that he would fight against "discrimination of any kind."
Romney took a pro-gay position on another hot-button issue during the Senate campaign: the ban on gay people participating in the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). During an Oct. 25 debate Romney was asked about the Scouts' policy. He answered, ""I support the right of the Boy Scouts of America to decide what it wants to do on that issue," according to the Globe. He then added, ""I feel that all people should be allowed to participate in the Boy Scouts regardless of their sexual orientation." At the time Romney served on the executive council of BSA, and a spokesperson for the organization criticized Romney in an Oct. 27 Globe article for opposing the official BSA policy.
During his 2002 gubernatorial run his campaign distributed bright pink flyers during Pride that declared "Mitt and Kerry wish you a great Pride weekend! All citizens deserve equal rights, regardless of their sexual preference." Romney also argued that he would not only support gay friendly policies but would fight on behalf of the gay community to secure benefits such as domestic partner benefits and hospital visitation rights for same-sex couples.
"Basically I see the provision of basic civil rights and domestic partnership benefits [as] a campaign against [then-House Speaker] Tom Finneran. I see Tom Finneran and the Democratic leadership as having opposed the application of domestic partnership benefits to gay and lesbian couples and I will support and endorse efforts to provide those domestic partnership benefits to gay and lesbian couples," Romney told Bay Windows in an interview published Oct. 24, 2002.
Once again he courted Log Cabin for an endorsement, and once again he got it. That October he met with members of the group's board of governors, where they asked him about his positions on LGBT issues. David Rogers, who served as president of Mass. Log Cabin in 2003, was present at that meeting. He said members were satisfied with Romney's replies about funding for HIV/AIDS programs and Safe Schools programs for LGBT youth, although he said he does not remember the specific positions on those issues that Romney took during that meeting. On the issue of same-sex marriage Rogers said Romney explained that he opposed it, but his answer led Rogers and others to believe that Romney might change his mind over time.
"He said [same-sex marriage] wasn't popular at this time... So I think his answer on marriage led many of us to believe it was possible, but not at this time," said Smith. He said the group did not discuss civil unions, gay parenting, or a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage with Romney during the meeting.
After Romney won the election, his first days in office gave some in the LGBT community hope that Romney might model himself after Weld in his approach to LGBT issues. At his Jan. 3, 2002 inaugural speech, Romney expressed the importance of defending civil rights "regardless of gender, sexual orientation, or race."
Romney also continued Weld's tradition of appointing openly gay people to key positions in his administration. One of his first cabinet appointments was Daniel Grabauskas, who Romney chose to serve in his cabinet as secretary of the Executive Office of Transportation and Construction.
The new governor's transition team also included several openly gay people, including Grabauskas, former lieutenant governor candidate and current president of the national Log Cabin Republicans Patrick Guerriero, and former Mass. Log Cabin president Mark Goshko.
Other gay Romney appointees include John Wagner, commissioner of the state welfare department, Mitchell Adams, executive director of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, and Jonathan Spampinato, a member of Romney's Diversity and Equal Opportunity Council. Two out lesbian appointees were fired by the governor shortly after getting legally married to their same-sex partners: Ardith Wieworka, former commissioner of Child Care Services, who was let go last summer, and Katherine Abbott, former commissioner of the Department of Conservation and Recreation, who was asked to resign last month after her department was blamed for not adequately clearing sidewalks along the VFW Parkway in West Roxbury where four high school students were hit by a pick-up truck after. Wieworka has since alleged that she was fired for marrying her same-sex partner. Abbott has refused to comment publicly on her firing.
Even after he came out in support of state and federal constitutional amendments to ban same-sex marriage, Romney took some actions that could be labeled pro-gay. He offered political and financial support to two openly gay Republican candidates for state representative in 2004, Richard Babson in the Eighth Suffolk District and Michael Motzkin of the Ninth Essex District, who both lost. Both candidates were promoted as part of the Romney Reform Team.
More recently Romney proposed allocating $250,000 for the Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth for fiscal year 2006, twice what he proposed for FY05. The Legislature ultimately funded the commission at $250,000 for FY05, so Romney's proposal for next year amounts to level funding, and the proposal is still a far cry from $1.6 million the commission received in the mid-'90s before the state budget crisis. Yet as commission co-chair Kathleen Henry said, Romney could just as easily have dissolved the program.
"We serve completely at the will of the governor," said Henry. She also said Romney issued an official commendation to recognize last year's 10th annual Gay/Straight Youth Pride Day on May 15.
All of which hardly sounds like the record of the man who's been courting red state America with anti-gay rhetoric.
The Romneys and us
By Jeff Epperly
March 28, 2002
During a debate in our offices regarding the revelation that a few of gubernatorial candidate Mitt Romney's immediate family members had signed the morally reprehensible petition to allow Massachusetts voters to legally invalidate same-sex relationships, one person observed that she "would hate to have to answer for everything done by my family members."
Okay, fair enough. Nor would I. But none of my family members, no matter how wise or wacky, stands to become the wife of our next governor. And as such, Ann Romney would have ample amounts of air-time and newsprint to espouse -- as the only hard evidence we have so far indicates -- her anti-gay positions.
Of course, Romney campaign people say that Ann Romney was unaware of the exact nature of what she was signing -- that she, like her husband, believes the so-called "Protection of Marriage" amendment goes too far.
Let's suppose for the moment that, too, is true. Does the wife of a man as political as Romney often go about signing political petitions she doesn't understand? And if she was capable of throwing her support behind so heinous a measure she allegedly didn't read, what's to stop her from doing so once her husband is elected -- when she'll have less pressure to backtrack?
Perhaps she isn't so bad. Perhaps she's a wise, kind person who was taken in by what we now know were the lies of those who were collecting petition signatures. But if those things are true, we have the right to expect that we will hear directly from her to see exactly how she does feel about lesbian and gay civil liberties. That means hearing it from her mouth and not through press releases or campaign spokespeople.
We should demand no less.
***
The last time Mitt Romney ran a campaign in these parts, it was against Ted Kennedy and I defended Romney against whisper campaigns regarding his being a Mormon. At the time I wrote that defense, repeated many times already this week since Romney announced his run for governor, I said that if we were to ask Romney to answer for Mormonism, we should ask Kennedy to answer for Catholicism as well.
Much has changed since that first campaign to invalidate some of that line of reasoning, especially for those of us in this community.
First: one of the things we ought to learn from the current pedophilia scandals of the Catholic Church is that no church or church leader should be above examination since their policies and positions may have consequences for all of us later.
Second: We know now that the Mormon Church has gone much farther in its anti-gay policies than what can generally be said about the Catholic Church. The Mormon Church has become one of the leading sources of funding for anti-gay efforts in this country, especially on issues like the Boy Scouts.
This is a far cry from having individual clerics, or even an archbishop, speaking out against gay rights. This is a church that has decided to directly inject itself into secular, political matters. That alone makes it fair game for secular examination during something as important as a gubernatorial campaign.
Third: We also now know that the extent of Romney's involvement in his church as a leader is far greater than Ted Kennedy's has ever been in the Catholic Church. And Kennedy has publicly disagreed with his church's positions on many issues.
That is not to say that anyone who is Mormon ought to be regarded with suspicion by non-Mormons. There are good Mormons and bad Mormons with regard to our civil rights, just as there are good or bad Catholics, Protestants, Jews or atheists.
Romney ought to say directly and without equivocation which Mormon Church positions he agrees with, and those he does not.
Asking a candidate about whether he or she agrees with the teachings of their religion is not the same as questioning their choice to follow it.
The latter is a religious litmus test of which all of us should be wary. The former is democracy in action. Romney should know the difference.
Gay GOP touts Romney as good for the community
By Bay Windows staff
March 28, 2002
Mitt Romney rode his wild success organizing this year's Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, all the way back to Massachusetts and right onto center stage as the Republican candidate for governor. But the Olympic gold dust has begun to settle -- Democrats have already taken aim at his inconsistent stance on abortion and criticized his positions on a host of other issues, from fixing the state's budget crisis to managing the Big Dig. And now that gay-friendly Governor Jane Swift has bowed out of the running, gay voters may also be wondering: Is Mitt good for gays?
Good enough, said several gay Republicans who spoke with Bay Windows, including Abner Mason, Swift's deputy chief of staff. "I am absolutely confident that as governor he would continue the commitment to gay equality that was started with [former Republican Governor William] Weld and continued with [former Republican Governor Paul] Cellucci and Swift," said Mason. "He will equal, if not better, the record of Weld, Cellucci and Swift." Mason recently met with Romney in his capacity as Swift's chief policy adviser, and said they discussed "a wide range of policy issues including gay rights." He declined to disclose the details of that conversation.
Lt. Governor candidate Patrick Guerriero, Swift's gay former running mate, agreed that Romney would be appealing to gay voters. Guerriero noted that Romney did receive support from gay Republicans in his failed 1994 bid for U.S. Senate and currently has gay Republican Jon Spampinato, who actively worked to recruit Romney in the governor's race, on his campaign staff. "The reality is there's a difference between 1994 and now," Guerriero told Bay Windows. "The issues are much more talked about. All the candidates will be called upon to clearly state their positions on gay issues" and the next few months will be a defining period, said Guerriero. "I think you'll see that his policies and stands are going to be rooted in the party of Abraham Lincoln."
Romney got his first chance to prove himself when, just days after announcing his candidacy in the driveway of his Belmont home, it was revealed that his wife, son and daughter-in-law had signed a petition to put the anti-gay "Protection of Marriage" constitutional amendment on the statewide ballot in 2004. Romney campaign spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom told Bay Windows that the family members signed the amendment petition -- which would not only ban gay marriage, but all legal protections for same-sex couples in Massachusetts -- without realizing how restrictive the amendment actually is. "They read the bold print," said Fehrnstrom. "They did not read the fine print."
Romney was unaware his family members had signed the amendment petition, said Fehrnstrom, and he does not support the "Protection of Marriage" amendment. "He is opposed to gay marriage, but in the case of the `defense of marriage' amendment Mitt believes it goes too far in that it would outlaw domestic partnership for non-traditional couples. That is something he is not prepared to accept." Asked whether Romney supported the domestic-partnership legislation -- which would provide health insurance benefits to the same-sex partners of state employees and give municipalities the choice to do the same -- currently pending before the state legislature's House Ways and Means Committee, Fehrnstrom said he was unsure. In the week since announcing his candidacy, he added, Romney has been involved in "an intense series of issues briefings" intended to bring him up to speed on issues currently facing Massachusetts citizens.
"I think it's very good that Mitt Romney came out and said he opposes the ballot initiative because it goes too far and is extreme," said Gary Daffin, co-chair of the Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus, a non-partisan organization. But he also adds, "I think we have some more work to do with Mitt Romney" on gay issues.
While Romney's stance against gay marriage -- which is consistent with his position during his '94 senate campaign -- is typical of many political candidates of both major parties, Daffin may have a point. Romney has had to fend off accusations from his fellow members of the Mormon Church that he called gays "perverse" in 1993, and has repeatedly denied the charge. In 1994 he expressed support for "don't ask, don't tell," the U.S. military's ban on openly gay soldiers.
He did, however, pledge to support the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would ban job discrimination based on sexual orientation, and other civil rights protections for gays in the areas of housing and credit. He also promised to bring the initiatives begun in Massachusetts to protect gay and lesbian youth to the federal level.
But what struck the gay GOP during that campaign, according to Massachusetts Log Cabin Republicans (LCR), was Romney's accessibility to and comfort within the local gay community. Romney and his Republican primary opponent, John Lakian, attended an LCR-sponsored candidate's forum during the campaign, where they both competitively vied for the organization's endorsement -- which Romney eventually won. During the course of his campaign, LCR member and former president Mark Goshko told Bay Windows, Romney held several meetings with group members and at least two LCR members joined his staff. Though gay Republicans were by no means running Romney's campaign, "it was really a multi-level involvement," Goshko stated. "Our people were very involved officially and outside of [the campaign]." Given that past level of involvement, said Goshko, "I have no reason to think that things won't develop similarly this time." Goshko and LCR's current president Chris Ferguson, said they have spoken with Romney campaign advisers and are hoping to schedule a sit-down meeting in the coming weeks.
Romney has also come under suspicion for his Mormon beliefs, given the church's leadership on anti-gay efforts in the U.S., and its generally conservative reputation. His opponents have attempted to use his religion to paint him as conservative on social issues, a characterization both Fehrnstrom and Ferguson said is unfair. "There's a rush to characterize Mitt Romney as a right-wing social conservative. I don't think that's entirely fair," said Ferguson. "There may be a lot of reasons at the end of the day not to support him or not to like him, but he should have the opportunity to define for himself what his positions are and not to have people mischaracterize him. ... Ted Kennedy doesn't bear the burden of carrying the cross for the shortcomings of the Catholic Church," he said.
Though Ferguson said that Romney will likely earn LCR's endorsement in the gubernatorial election, he and Goshko -- and Daffin -- criticized Romney's decision not to follow Swift's advice that he choose Guerriero as running mate. Guerriero also made the pitch to Romney in a meeting with the candidate last week. Romney has said that while he will not recruit a new candidate to run with him for Lt. Gov., he will let the voters choose between Guerriero and his opponent, James Rappaport, and focus on his own campaign. "Really in my mind, the unbeatable ticket would be Romney/Guerriero," said Ferguson, citing the balance Guerriero's experience as Melrose mayor and a state legislator would bring to Romney's skills as a manager and a leader. Romney, a millionaire venture capitalist, has never held public office. Such a ticket would also bring diversity to Romney's campaign, as opposed to a pairing with Rappaport, also a millionaire who has never held public office.
Daffin is a little more pointed in his assessment of the benefits of including Guerriero in Romney's campaign. "As people look at this race, I'm not sure the Republican Party wants to have two wealthy people in this race who are basically trying to buy the governorship," he said. "The more Mitt Romney gets to know the Lt. Gov. candidates he may come to the conclusion that one is more accessible than the other."
Romney: I'll be better than Ted for gay rights
By Chris Muther
Aug. 25, 1994
Mitt Romney’s campaign for the U.S. Senate hit a snag last month when four members of his Mormon congregation alleged in a Boston Globe article that Romney referred to lesbians and gay men as “perverse” in a November, 1993 speech.
Both in a the Boston Globe and in a subsequent interview with Bay Windows, Romney, who has served as a leader in the Mormon church, denied making the comments. He said he is planning a meeting with the gay community in upcoming weeks to talk about his stand on gay rights and other issues.
In an interview with Bay Windows Aug. 18 , Romney said one reason why he is a better candidate for Senate than opponent Sen. Edward Kennedy is because his voice would carry more weight on lesbian and gay issues than Kennedy’s.
Bay Windows: You’ve denied allegations that you called lesbians and gays “perverse.” Why do you think a member or members of your church would come forward and make those allegations if they’re not true?
Mitt Romney: I think the reason they came forward was for political reasons. I gave the same remarks 10 times to 10 different congregations and no one came forward to me and expressed any concern. It was only when I became a political candidate that someone came forward. I think there’s no question that my political involvement led to the [allegations] being made at all.
I can’t speak to whether there was misunderstanding on the part of the listener or on the part of the speaker. I have spoken with individuals with that congregation and reviewed my notes of my remarks, there is no question but that I did not make the comments that are attributed to me.
If not perverse, how do you feel about lesbians and gay men?
I respect all people regardless of their differences. I actually made that very clear in my very first television advertising. I feel that as a society and for me as an individual, it’s incumbent on all of us to respect one another, regardless of our differences and beliefs, our differences in sexual orientation, in race and that America has always been a place, and should be a place, to welcome and tolerate people’s differences.
I personally feel and one of my core beliefs is that we should accept people of all backgrounds and recognize everyone as a brother and a sister because we are all part of the family of man.
My church becomes an issue for some, and I think that’s because of a lack of understanding on many people’s part about my church. I’m not here running in this campaign to be a spokesman for my church. I’m proud of my religious heritage and my faith has taught me a great deal and helped me as a developing person. I think that one can understand where I stand, in part by looking at my parent’s stands on the issues of their day.
My church was criticized in the ’60s and ’70s as not being fully accepting of black Americans, and yet my father [George Romney, former governor of Michigan] was widely recognized as a leader in the civil rights movement, particularly in the Republican party. He marched in civil rights demonstrations or parades, opposed the Goldwater platform in 1964 and refused to endorse Goldwater as a presidential candidate when my father was governor. So despite the misunderstanding about my church, my father’s personal views were manifest by his actions in the public and private arenas.
I’d say the same thing about my mother [Lenore Romney]. My mom was a U.S. Senate candidate in 1970, before Roe v. Wade. My church feels that abortion is not a good choice. However, my mother advocated for the legalization of abortion. So they, like I, can live by and have personal beliefs which celebrate the diversity of our society, and fight for the right of all people to live by their own beliefs and to make their own choices. Their example and my experience is one of showing respect and tolerance for all others.
When we spoke last month, you talked about the concept of free agency in the Mormon Church, which is letting people live how they choose. But what about going forward and advocating on behalf of people instead of merely accepting them? Would you be willing to advocate for rights of lesbians and gay men?
The answer is yes. When I speak of free agency, I don’t just mean that each person can do what they want to do, I mean that our society should allow people the freedom to make their own choices and live by their own beliefs. People of integrity don’t force their beliefs on others, they make sure that others can live by different beliefs they may have. That’s the great thing about this country: it was founded to allow people to follow beliefs of their own conscience. I will work and have worked to fight discrimination and to assure to each American equal opportunity. You’ll see that, for instance, in my relations in the workplace.
I’ve been an executive of Bain & Co. For a number of years, I was chief executive at Bain & Co. It’s an environment that fosters openness and fights discrimination. I believe it is a good place for gay and lesbian individuals to work. I know of nothing in our workplace that doesn’t encourage promotion and compensation based on performance, without regard to personal differences, such as sexual orientation. I believe that my record, my life, is a clear indication of my support and insistence on anti-discrimination and on efforts to assure equal rights for all.
Does Bain & Co. have a non-discrimination policy that mentions sexual orientation or offer domestic partner benefits?
I would have to look and see what Bain & Co. does. My guess would be yes, but I’m sure exactly what it has for anti-discrimination policies and in all of my years at Bain & Co. I have never heard any person complain about any discrimination based on sexual orientation. I have a number of friends at Bain & Co. who are openly gay and we’ve had a number of tragedies with young men who have contracted AIDS. Some of whom have passed on, and the outpouring of concern and affection for them and for others in similar conditions have existed throughout the company and it has been part of my life’s experience.
