As governor of Massachusetts, Mitt
Romney actively worked against gay parents, denying them access to
new birth certificates.
After the state became the first to
legalize gay marriage in 2003, the state Registry of Vital Records
and Statistics proposed altering its birth certificate forms to
accommodate babies born to gay and lesbian couples. The agency
proposed relabeling the box for “father” to read “father or
second parent.”
Romney, according to the Boston
Globe, rejected the plan. Instead, he ordered his top legal
staff to individually review each request. If approved, officials
would then be allowed to make the changes to the form by hand,
crossing out the word “father” and substituting “second
parent.”
The practice remained in place
throughout Romney's term. For lesbian couples, the policy resulted
in delays. But gay men were often forced to obtain a court order.
In
noting Romney's opposition to gay parents, the paper quoted the
Republican presidential candidate's 2004 testimony before the Senate
Judiciary Committee in Washington.
“The children of America have the
right to a father and a mother,” Romney testified. “What should
be the ideal for raising a child? Not a village, not 'parent A' and
'parent B,' but a mother and a father.”
At a 2005 rally in South Carolina, he
added: “Some gays are actually having children born to them. It's
not right on paper. It's not right in fact. Every child has a right
to a mother and father.”
Romney also actively supported efforts
for a Massachusetts constitutional amendment limiting marriage to
heterosexual couples, which would have effectively reversed the
Supreme Judicial Court's ruling legalizing marriage for gay couples.
Earlier this year, Romney
boasted that he kept Massachusetts from becoming “the Las Vegas of
gay marriage,” a reference to the fact that out-of-state gay
couples were banned from marrying in the state while Romney was
governor.
(Related: Mitt
Romney retracts disavowing support for federal gay marriage ban.)