A spokesman for President Barack Obama
on Tuesday criticized Mitt Romney's record on gay rights as
“regressive.”
The verbal skirmish comes just days
after Vice
President Joe Biden said he was “comfortable” with gay couples
marrying, prompting Romney surrogates to criticize Obama's stance
on the issue.
“The President has done more to
advance gay rights than any other president – from securing
hospital visitation and medical decision-making rights for gay
partners, to repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell, to advancing equal
rights and benefits for gays and lesbians," spokesman Ben LaBolt
said in a statement, POLITICO.com
reported.
"Governor Romney went from
promising to be to the left of Ted Kennedy on gay rights to working
to enshrine discrimination into the Constitution by passing a federal
marriage amendment, personally funding efforts to roll back equal
rights for gays and lesbians in states, and making clear he would
have kept Don't Ask, Don't Tell in place. The country has moved
forward since 1994, when Governor Romney was supposedly an advocate
on these issues, yet Governor Romney has moved backwards. He would
turn back the clock on all of the progress this President has made to
advance equal rights.”
“On the issue important to gays and
lesbians, Governor Romney hasn't evolved – he has regressed,” he
added.