Romney against bias to gays despite opposition to gay marriage

BOSTON --Gov. Mitt Romney said Monday he opposes discrimination against gays and lesbians despite his ongoing battles to outlaw same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, including a pending lawsuit.

Romney, in his first comments to local Statehouse reporters since Thanksgiving, also told an Associated Press reporter and another reporter that he supports a verification system to let employers track whether potential workers are in the country legally.

Romney defended a letter he wrote during his unsuccessful 1994 run for U.S. Senate in which he promised a gay Republicans group he would be a stronger advocate for gays than Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy.

"I'm not in favor of discrimination of any kind including people who have a different sexual preference than myself," Romney said during the brief interview. "At the same time I'm very committed to traditional marriage between one man and one woman and believe that marriage should be preserved in that way."

In 1994, Romney wrote a letter to the Log Cabin Club of Massachusetts, a gay Republican group, when he was courting gay voters during his campaign against Kennedy.

Citing Kennedy's record of advocacy for gays and lesbians, Romney wrote, "For some voters, it might be enough to simply match my opponent's record in this area. But I believe we can and must do better. If we are to achieve the goals we share, we must make equality for gays and lesbians a mainstream concern. My opponent cannot do this. I can and will."

Romney, who is preparing for a possible run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, said there was nothing inconsistent between his position then and his vigorous opposition to gay marriage in Massachusetts now.

Romney is part of a lawsuit seeking to force lawmakers to take a vote on a proposed constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in Massachusetts. If lawmakers refuse, the lawsuit asks the state's highest court to put the question on the 2008 ballot anyway.

"I don't think there's any conflict between feeling that all people deserve respect and tolerance and that discrimination is wrong and a belief that marriage is between a man and a woman," Romney said Monday.

Romney also called for a national system to allow employers to check the immigration status of workers.

The Boston Globe has reported that it interviewed in Spanish four current and former employees of Community Lawn Service with a Heart, a company hired by Romney to work on his property. All but one said they were in the United States illegally.

Romney has said he was unaware of the status of the workers.

He said the country needs an employment verification system "so that employers, legal employers, are able to determine if the person they are hiring is a legal worker in this country."

He said individual homeowners "are not responsible for checking the citizenship papers or status of employees."

"We did check to make sure that the employer we asked to do our lawn was legal and he was legal," Romney said Monday. "But we're not authorized to check his employees. It would in some respects be profiling and be discriminatory for me to go around and ask employees to show me their papers."

Romney has spent much of the past three weeks out of the state, including an extended visit to Asia. Romney said he visited with American business owners working oversees, but said the trip was "primarily for me to be educated on relationships there."

He also said he was working on a blueprint of the state budget to hand off to incoming Democratic Gov.-elect Deval Patrick "that could be helpful to him, or he could throw it out."

"I know when I came into office, the budget was kind of a big deal to have to work with from a standing start," said Romney, adding that he didn't anticipate any more emergency budget cuts before he steps down.

Romney cut $425 million from the state budget last month, saying it was needed to balance the budget. He later restored about $41 million of the cuts after state revenues for November were stronger than anticipated.