Rick Santorum on Monday accused GOP
presidential rival Mitt Romney of being more liberal on gay marriage
than President Barack Obama.
Santorum, a former senator from
Pennsylvania, made his remarks during an interview on Laura
Ingraham's radio show.
When Ingraham asked Romney's stance on
a proposed bill that would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA),
Santorum answered: “I would argue that Mitt Romney, as governor of
Massachusetts, was to the left of Barack Obama on the issue of gay
marriage.”
DOMA is the 1996 law that bars federal
agencies and the military from recognizing the legal marriages of gay
and lesbian couples.
“If you want to see the contrast, the
contrast is there. [I'm a] solid conservative who fought for the
federal marriage amendment as opposed to Mitt Romney, who issued gay
marriage licenses and actually violated the constitution of
Massachusetts to institute gay marriage in his state,” he said.
“One of the reasons I do talk about
the past is because I have the best record in the field,” he added.
(The audio is embedded in right panel of this page.)
As governor of the first state to
legalize gay marriage in 2004, Romney granted special waivers that
allowed a non-clergy individual to solemnize a marriage. The One Day
Marriage Designation is not a marriage license. However, applicants
must include the name, address and date of birth of the couple he/she
wishes to marry.