Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney told Congress in 2005 that same-sex marriage “may affect the development of children, and thereby future society as a whole.” Romney, testifying as the governor of Massachusetts against marriage equality, spoke before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, then chaired by Utah Republican Senator Orrin Hatch. Romney fear-mongered and, yes, lied to Congress about same-sex marriage and about the very working of his state.
Watch: Romney Angered ‘Some Gays Are Actually Having Children Born To Them’
“The societal implications and effects on the children are not likely to be observed for at least a generation, probably several generations.” Romney added that same-sex marriage “may affect the development of children, and thereby future society as a whole.”
“The family unit is the underpinning, as we know, of all successful societies,” Romney told the Senators. “Scientific studies of children raised by same-sex couples are almost non-existent.”
Romney also claimed:
The children of America have the right to have a mother and a father. Of course, even today circumstances can take a parent from the home, but the child still has a mother and a father. If the parents are unmarried or divorced, the child can still visit each of them. If a mother or a father of a child is deceased, the child can learn about the qualities of their departed parent. His or her psychological features can be developed by the contrasting features of both genders. Are we ready to usher in a society indifferent about having mothers and fathers? Will our children be indifferent about a having a mother and father?”
Michelangelo Signorile, editor-at-large of Huffington Post Gay Voices, has been writing about Governor Romney’s attacks on the LGBT community, based on last week’s Boston Globe article by Murray Waas.
“Now, for the first time in this campaign, video has surfaced of Romney making those bigoted claims about gay parents while pushing his heartless policy against their children,” Signorile notes:
Romney outlined his battle with the Registry of Vital Statistics to the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding changing the birth certificate forms. He defended his position to the Judiciary Committee (and again claimed it was about changing the form to include boxes labeled “parent A” and “parent B” when that was not the case) even as a Massachusetts Department of Health attorney warned that it didn’t conform to legal statues and could disadvantage the children later in life, impeding their ability to apply for school and get passports, drivers licenses or other forms of identification, particularly in a post-9/11 world where they might be viewed as security risks with altered birth certificates.
In 2006 Romney went on to stop the publication of an anti-bullying guide for public school students, because the term “bisexual” and “transgender” were used in a passage discussing harassment against students. These and other actions were a stark turnaround from when Romney had, in his Senate run in 1994, told gay activists that he was better on gay issues than Ted Kennedy, claiming to support an array of rights for gays and saying that his voice would have more weight on the issue than Kennedy’s.
The entire video is especially revealing, and we encourage watching and sharing it.. Romney’s comments before the Senate begin at the 6:10 mark:
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