▪ Are we allowed to be against Obama?
▪ Running for the Senate in 1994, Mitt Romney pledged to work for “full equality for America’s gay and lesbian citizens” and argued that he would be a more effective champion of this cause than Ted Kennedy. He pledged to co-sponsor a federal ban on discrimination against homosexuals in employment, housing, and credit. He supported President Clinton’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, and looked forward to the day that homosexuals could “serve openly and honestly in our nation’s military.” What should social conservatives, whom Romney has been courting as part of his presidential campaign, make of these facts? That depends. Presumably Romney still believes, as he should, that gays deserve “full equality.” Since Romney also said, in 1994, that the law should recognize marriage as the union of a man and a woman, he evidently thought that the traditional marriage laws were compatible with full equality—and still believes it. It would be entirely plausible for Romney to explain that the experience of fighting the judicial imposition of same-sex marriage has given him a new perspective on some of these issues. Perhaps he had considered employment discrimination as a discrete issue, for example, but has come to see it as one front in a campaign to force the unwilling to look favorably on homosexuality. Or perhaps he has just changed his mind. Alot of primary voters are looking forward to hearing Romney’s explanation.
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