Mitt Romney stated today that he wanted marriage defined on the federal level as being between a man and woman only, but also noted that he backs gay adoption.
“Let me make it very clear, which is that my preference would be to have a national standard that defines marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman,” Romney told Fox Business Network’s Neil Cavuto. Referring to domestic partnership benefits, Romney added, “That would then allow states to determine what rights would be provided for people of the same gender that wanted to have a relationship.”
“I believe that marriage has been defined the same way for literally thousands of years by virtually every civilization in history and that marriage is by its definition a relationship between a man and woman and if two people of the same gender want to live together, want to have a loving relationship, even want to adopt a child in my state, individuals of the same sex are able to adopt children,” Romney continued. “In my view, that’s something which people have the right to do, but to call that marriage is, in my view, a departure from the real meaning of the word.”