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Date Posted: 21:07:22 12/27/06 Wed
Author: Slan
Subject: Well, I don't know....
In reply to: Chuck in ND (posted by Jay) 's message, "Here are a few reasons why not . . ." on 07:18:20 12/26/06 Tue

Some of that sounds like it comes from a "hit piece" to me because it's a bit overstated. Jay and I were talking over some of these things tonight, and I wanted to see Romney's exact statements on some of these things instead of what someone said about what his positions were. Here's what I found about some of these issues (the only ones I looked up. Haven't had time to do the rest...)

===
The articles are all from the Boston Globe, Romney's home newspaper.

BSA and Romney

"In a debate during the 1994 campaign when he challenged US Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Romney was asked specifically whether he had done anything to change the Boy Scouts’ policy. He said then that he supported local councils’ right to make local decisions, but that he personally opposed the policy. 'I feel that all people should be allowed to participate in the Boy Scouts, regardless of their sexual orientation,' he said.

In 1994, the Boston Globe reported that when Romney was asked about the Scout’s policy he said, 'I support the right of the boy Scouts of America to decide what it wants to do on that issue. . . . I feel that all people should be allowed to participate in the Boy Scouts regardless of their sexual orientation.' "

(This isn't forcing BSA leaders to do anything.)

======
Romney and Gay Marriage:

Transcript from "Hardball"

August 26, 2005

CHRIS MATTHEWS: Do you think there's any difference, really, between a gay marriage and something called a civil union?

GOV. MITT ROMNEY, MASSACHUSETTS: Well, I would rather have neither, to tell you the truth. I'd rather that domestic partner benefits, such as hospital - hospital visitation rights for same-sex couples. I don't want civil unions or gay marriage.

But there is a difference, even when just the word is the difference. And the difference is that, if you indicate as a society that you're indifferent between a same-sex couple marrying and a heterosexual couple marrying, then it means our schools and other institutions are going to have to indicate that there is no difference whatsoever, and that obviously has societal consequences that are important.

MATTHEWS: You mean if we called it marriage II or barriage or come up with some other word, and yet the law was exactly the same, that would be significant?

ROMNEY: Well, I'm not sure we are going to come up with a different word.

But if you say that the society is entirely indifferent between whether you have heterosexuals or homosexual couples marrying, then how do you justify, for instance, having birth certificates that include the names of mothers and fathers? We have same-sex couples in my state now saying, we ought to remove mother and father from our birth certificate, instead saying parent A and parent B.

We have schools that believe that it's inappropriate to consider mother and father in textbooks. Some have said that that's two hetero-centrist.

MATTHEWS: Yes.

ROMNEY: And so, you know, I think it's appropriate for us to indicate that we do care as a society and that marriage is a relationship preserved for a man and a woman.

MATTHEWS: Help me understand Massachusetts politics here. Is it a battle between a very hyped-up, passionate interest group, gay people and their supporters, against a sort of a vague opposition to it ... tell me, what is it? What is the politics of this issue? Why doesn't the state of Massachusetts, through its elected officials, simply overrule the Supreme Court up there and say, there's not going to be any gay marriage; I don't care what some judge says about the Constitution written 200 years ago? Why don't they just do that?

ROMNEY: Well, well, as you know, it's not that easy. When a court overreaches its bounds and decides to legislate from the bench, it's pretty hard to overturn that.
In our case, we have to pass a constitutional amendment. And my legislature is in, some respects, liberal. It has a conservative wing as well. But the liberal wing is fighting very hard for same-sex marriage or its legal equivalent, civil union. And so, as this has gone before the legislature in the past, they've said that the people ought to decide. I agree with them. Let's let the people decide.

So, we will have a constitutional convention this year. Hopefully, the decision of our legislature will be to let the people decide. And, specifically, I hope that people will be able to decide that neither civil union, nor same-sex marriage is legal in Massachusetts.

MATTHEWS: If they end up agreeing on a civil union solution, would you continue to fight for change to go back to the original man-and-a-woman proposition?

ROMNEY: Well, yes. I'm going to want to see a marriage limited to a man and a woman. I don't want to see civil union either.

Of course, if we find ourselves in a setting where the only choice is between civil union and marriage, I will prefer civil union. But I would prefer neither.

====
Gay Adoption

March, 2006

Governor Mitt Romney, who frequently tells Republican audiences that every child has a right to have a mother and father, acknowledged yesterday that same-sex couples have ''a legitimate interest" in adopting children.

Romney said he would file a ''very narrow" bill aimed at letting Catholic Charities, the social service arm of the Boston Archdiocese, and other religious groups exclude same-sex couples from their adoption programs if including them violates religious tenets. But he also noted that gays and lesbians have a right to adopt.

''I know that there will be some gay couples who will say that this could be discriminatory against us," Romney told reporters after an unrelated press conference at the Westin Copley Place hotel. ''Except that there are many, many other agencies that can meet the needs of those gay couples, and I recognize that they have a legitimate interest in being able to receive adoptive services.

Romney has sought to strike a balance between his opposition to same-sex marriage and his role as the executive officer in a state where such marriages are legal. Romney, particularly in out-of-state speeches to GOP audiences, often attacks the Supreme Judicial Court for its November 2003 decision legalizing same-sex marriage, which made Massachusetts the first state to do so. In an appearance Friday at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in Memphis, an important early event for presidential hopefuls, he reiterated his position that ''Every child in America has the right to a mother and a father."

===
Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth

July 2006

Gov. Mitt Romney issued an executive order Friday abolishing the state's 14-year-old governor's commission on gay and lesbian youth after lawmakers overrode his veto of a bill creating a new commission out of the reach of the governor's office.

A spokesman for Romney said he issued the executive order because there was no need for two commissions both focused on the needs of gay and lesbian youth. He had continued to fund (though at a very modest level) the pre-existing Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth

Romney angered many gay rights activists and lawmakers when he flirted with the idea earlier this year of abolishing the commission, the first of its kind in the nation, after a press release announcing a youth gay pride march was issued without the administration's blessing. Instead of killing the commission Romney ordered it to refocus on its core mission of suicide prevention.

The bill approved by lawmakers over Romney's veto would create a new commission, none of whose members would be directly appointed by the governor.

One of the main goals of the commission would be to create "school-based and community-based programs focusing on suicide prevention, violence intervention, and the promotion of zero-tolerance policies regarding harassment and discrimination against gay and lesbian youth."

The Gov.'s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth was first created by former Republican Gov. William Weld through an executive order. That allowed Romney to dismantle it, also by executive order.

===

One of the sites I came across while looking up quotes said that "everything Romney has done as governor has been pro-life and pro-marriage." And that a lot of anti-Romney sites have many "flagrant factual ommissions" in order "to manipulate Romney's record" as do so many "other Anti-(your choice) sites." This site supporting Romney wasn't one of the LDS or Christian sites supporting Romney, but Illinoisans for Romney which says, "Illinois is a state of heartland values. We are pro family, pro freedom, pro American tradition...Our state deserves no less than Mitt Romney."

Just some things to consider. I'm sure there will be lots on both sides of this.

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