New questions on Romney's stance on gays

Governor Mitt Romney's views on homosexuality have come under increased scrutiny and created a buzz on political blogs after a series of articles indicating that the potential conservative GOP presidential candidate had expressed gay-friendly positions while running for the US Senate in 1994.

The latest report came in today's editions of The New York Times, which details a 1994 letter Romney sent to the Log Cabin Club of Massachusetts, a GOP-leaning gay rights group, in which he wrote that he would be a stronger advocate for gays than his opponent at the time, US Senator Edward M. Kennedy, a long-time gay rights supporter.

"If we are to achieve the goals we share, we must make equality for gays and lesbians a mainstream concern," Romney wrote, according to the Times report. "My opponent cannot do this. I can and will."

The Times story follows a Globe story published yesterday that reported that Romney told a Boston-area gay newspaper in 1994 that legalizing gay marriage should be left up to individual states, contrasting with his more recent position that marriage should only occur between men and women and his support of a federal constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages.

"People of integrity don't force their beliefs on others; they make sure that others can live by different beliefs they may have," Romney is quoted as saying in the Bay Windows newspaper in August of 1994.

The scrutiny occurs as Romney positions himself for a White House run in 2008, with many political analysts ranking the one-term governor in the upper tier of Republican candidates, alongside US Senator John McCain and former New York mayor Rudoph W. Giuliani.

Lacking foreign policy experience, Romney is expected to position himself as a social conservative, with his stance against gay marriage the most prominent feather in his conservative cap.

In Republican forums around the nation, Romney has trumpeted his opposition to a Massachusetts court decision legalizing gay marriage.

Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom has said: "Governor Romney believes Americans should be respectful of all people. What he opposes are the efforts of activist judges who seek to redefine the longstanding institution of marriage being between a man and woman."

But the reaction to the comments from the 1994 Massachusetts Senate race indicate that some conservatives may be reassessing Romney.

"This is quite disturbing," Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council and an influential conservative, told the Times.

Romney's views on gays have stimulated considerable chatter in the conservative blogosphere, where some have wondered aloud if he has hurt his standing with conservative voters.

"Will it sink the Romney campaign? I have a hard time seeing him win in the South," wrote the UtahConservative blog in reaction to a Nov. 26 Globe column about Romney's views on gays, which also cites the letter to the Massachusetts Log Cabin group.

Americans for Truth, a conservative group that opposes gay rights, posted an essay late last month saying, "Romney has a long record of supporting homosexual and abortion 'rights' despite his Mormon religion."

Romney is likely to face similar criticism over his comments on abortion. During the 1994 Senate race, he said, "I believe abortion should be safe and legal." When he ran for governor in 2002, he said he did not support abortion but would "protect the right of a woman to choose" the procedure. In a 2005 Globe op-ed article, he wrote, "I am pro life," and explained to reporters that his position on the issue had evolved.

In a recent posting titled "The Mitt Romney deception" that touches on Romney's gay rights positions, local conservative activist Brian Camenker wrote: "Despite recent statements across the country by Governor Mitt Romney claiming he's pro-life, pro-family and a committed conservative, a broad investigation of his actual statements, actions, and public positions over the years indicates that he has spent his entire career speaking and governing as a liberal."