A Mitt Romney state political action
committee gave $10,000 to the anti-gay marriage group National
Organization for Marriage (NOM).
According to documents released Friday
by gay rights advocate Human
Rights Campaign (HRC), the Free & Strong America PAC Alabama,
a state-level PAC that has raised and distributed money on behalf of
Romney, made the donation in 2008.
At the time, NOM was working to approve
Proposition 8, California's gay marriage ban.
Internal documents released this week
in connection with a Maine court case outline NOM's strategy to pit
minority groups against supporters of gay marriage.
“Mitt Romney's funding of a
hate-filled campaign designed to drive a wedge between Americans is
beyond despicable,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese. “Not only
has Romney signed NOM's radical marriage pledge, now we know he's one
of the donors that NOM has been so desperate to keep secret all these
years.”
NOM has defended its work.
“It's insulting to suggest that these
African-American or Latino leaders are standing up because NOM is
manipulating them,” spokeswoman
Maggie Gallagher said during an appearance Friday on MSNBC. “We
didn't cause or create this, and frankly if we could get together
with the gay community and take the idea that it's bigoted or
discriminatory to stand up for marriage off the table for black
people or white people, we'd be happy to do it.”
The Romney campaign told The
Washington Post that the donation was in line with the
candidate's views.
“Gov. Romney believes marriage is an
institution between a man and a woman and his PAC made a donation to
a group supporting that view,” said campaign spokesperson Andrea
Saul.
The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, of which Romney is a member, was a major
contributor to the Proposition 8 campaign. Romney family members –
his son Matt and two daughters-in-law – also donated to the
campaign.
HRC said the donation could violate
California disclosure laws.
(Related: Rick
Santorum, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich called on to disavow NOM's
pledge.)