Flip-flop Friday - Romney on Gay Rights and Marriage Equality

“As we seek to establish full equality for America’s gay and lesbian citizens, I will provide more effective leadership than my opponent.” -- 1994, in a letter from Mitt Romney to the gay rights group Log Cabin Club, written during his run for the U.S. Senate.

“Marriage is an institution between a man and a woman. I will support an amendment to the Massachusetts Constitution to make that expressly clear.”-- 2003 as governor of Massachusetts after that state’s Supreme Judicial Court issued a ruling that denial of marriage to same sex couples was not legal. Gov. Romney continued to fight their decision until 2007 when his one term as governor ended.

“I would, unlike this president, defend the Defense of Marriage Act. I would also propose and promote once again an amendment to the (U.S.) constitution to define marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman.” -- 2012, Mitt Romney speaking to the Faith and Freedom Coalition.

what eye thynk: So, when Romney wanted to be a U.S. Senator from historically liberal Massachusetts, he was for equal rights for the LGTB community. By the time he became governor of Massachusetts, and no longer needed their support, he was against it.

Now, he would like to change our U.S. Constitution to reflect his current prejudices, turning every gay, lesbian, transgender and bi-sexual American into a second class citizen.  But, stick around, this is only July. Mitt has plenty of time to find another view to embrace on this issue.

If God has a sense of humor, we’ll find out that Sheldon Adelson is secretly gay and wants to marry one of the Koch brothers. Then we can all watch Mitt spin in circles as he tries to retain access to all that Adelson-Koch money while attempting to convince the far right that he is still one of them.

FLIP --“Look at my record. I’ve been best-buds with members of the Log Cabin Club since 1994!”
FLOP -- “But I privately pitied them and only became friendly so I could help them pray away the gay!”
FLIP -- “Look at my record again. I even asked Richard Grenell, an openly gay man, to be my campaign advisor on foreign affairs. No, wait, my conservative patrons didn’t like him and he was forced to quit before he really started. Sorry. Forget that one. My bad.”
FLOP --“You see, I cleansed my campaign of all that nasty gay influence when you asked me to! (And I want you to know that Sheldon is, in reality, a woman. He has just been pretending to be a man because of a secret Russian plot to kidnap him and turn him into a prostitute at one of his own Macau casinos. So, you see, that Adelson-Koch marriage is really okay. And, besides, they‘re both really rich, and the rich are the BEST!)”

If God were fair, He would guarantee that every family included at least one gay member so all straight people could see that being gay is just a different way of being human.  Unfortunately, God, and life, aren't fair.  It is up to us to ensure that equality is equal.  Stopping Mitt is one way to continue the fight.

Random Thoughts

#1   Republican National Committee Chairman, Reince Priebus says he is tired of hearing that his party is running a war on voting. In a recent interview, he said “For centuries our electoral process is based on one person, one vote, and for anyone to politicize the issue reeks of desperation and represents the worst in modern politics”.

what eye thynk: This is the party that, while calling for smaller government and the need to focus on jobs, has spent the past three years passing laws requiring voters to present IDs, limiting voter registration drives and closing early voter windows. In Ohio, if a registered voter shows up at the wrong voting location, they want to make it illegal for a precinct worker to re-direct the voter to his correct voting location!  Really!  All these new laws are supposed to eliminate voter fraud. When asked about the amount of voter fraud they had uncovered that required the passage of so many voter restrictive laws, they couldn’t give any clear answer. Non-partisan study has said that voter fraud is nearly non-existent in this country. I could go into how most of these laws will hinder  poor and minorities who just happen to usually vote Democrat, but that would make the Republicans look like they are trying to steal the elections. So, lets just say that the war on voting that they say they aren’t running is a solution in search of a problem.
　
#2   Mitt Romney is currently vetting candidates for Vice President. A member of John McCain's failed 2008 presidential campaign was quoted as saying that the vetting of Sarah Palin was lacking in substance. “We assumed that anyone with Governor in front of their name would have a basic working knowledge of history and policies. We won’t make this mistake again.”

what eye thynk: While I agree that a thorough and substantial approach to choosing a running mate is important, part of me was kinda hoping for another Republican debacle. I mean, really, late night television was never funnier than it was in 2008.
　
#3   The Obama administration has recently changed the regulations for fracking on public lands. Originally, the companies using public land had to disclose the chemicals they would use 30 days before they started working. The new regulation still requires that they disclose the chemicals, but now they can wait until after they are done. Lobbyists for companies like Exxon were concerned about the cost of compliance with the original regulations.

what eye thynk: Two things--what, they aren’t making enough money? Reporting what they’re using before actually pumping it into the ground is going to bankrupt them? And--what is the point of reporting it after? Shouldn’t someone have the ability to say “no, that chemical shouldn’t be near a source of ground water” before the well down the road is contaminated? The Obama administration really failed on this one.

#4   Currently, if a heterosexual alien marries a heterosexual American citizen, the alien gets a green card that grants permanent U.S. legal residency. Because Federal law does not recognize same sex marriages, the same protection and courtesy is not granted to same sex couples--even if they were legally married in a state that allows same sex marriage. The U.S. Court of Appeals in Boston will soon hear a case involving a same sex couple where the U.S. is trying to deport one spouse. A conservative legal group appointed by the U.S. House of Representatives will argue against them.

what eye thynk: Why am I not surprised? The Republicans have become the party that believes that the only law that counts is the one they have passed.  And if, by some chance, a law gets passed that they don't like, they will fight it any way they can. Witness the roadblocks that Republican dominated states have put up to stop a woman from getting a FEDERALLY LEGAL abortion. They claim that it is a state’s right to create provisos that limit a woman‘s access to a medical procedure that, under Federal law is perfectly legal; but when a state makes same sex marriage legal for their citizens, all of a sudden they start arguing the other side of that coin.　
　

When You're a Republican, Bigotry Has Its Own Rewards

Last week, Speaker of the House John Boehner appointed Robert George to the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom, an organization dedicated to addressing “the challenges of religious extremism, intolerance and repression throughout the world”.

what eye thynk: Robert George is not a household name so his appointment to what, admittedly, is a minor post was not a major news story and has gone mostly unnoticed; but Speaker Boehner's choice of Mr. George speaks volumes about the Republican party and their disregard for those who are not “like them”.

Robert George is the co-founder and chairman emeritus of the National Organization for Marriage, a group that identifies itself as a social welfare organization though the state of Maine identifies it more accurately as a political activist group and has decided it must follow disclosure laws pertaining to that true identity.

The day before Speaker Boehner appointed Mr. George to his new post, a Federal judge in Maine unsealed memos and e-mails written by the NOM. The details of these memos show that the National Organization for Marriage is nothing more than a front for a conservative political hate group whose main focus appears to be to deny gay men and women the right to marry.

Some of the memos brag about their “crucial” role in the passage of California’s Proposition 8. One memo talks about how the NOM made robo calls to residents in other states that were designed to scare residents away from supporting marriage equality; another details a plan where “the strategic goal of the project is to drive a wedge between gays and blacks--two key Democratic constituencies”. Hispanic voters also earned the attention of the NOM. One of their programs calls for the manipulation of Hispanic voters in order to exclude gay people from marriage calling it “a key badge of Latino identity”.

Mr. George’s campaign against equal marriage rights did not stop with his founding of the NOM. In 2001 he co-authored the Federal Marriage Amendment which attempted to add an amendment to the US Constitution that would ban any state from legalizing same-sex marriage. In 2009 he helped to write the 4700 word Manhattan Declaration, a document that denounces not just same-sex marriage but also civil unions of any kind.

It should be noted that both Mr. Romney and Mr. Santorum have signed a pledge in support of the Manhattan Declaration. (Is it just me who finds it really scary when elected officials--or those who hope to become elected officials--sign pledges promising to support private hate groups?)
 
What possible justification can Speaker Boehner have for appointing this intolerant extremist to an international commission supposedly dedicated to fighting intolerance and extremism? Mr. George would appear to any sensible person to be so uniquely unqualified for this post that his appointment would seem a joke…that is, if you find hatred funny.