HRC Blog

Presidential Primary Season 2012: That’s a Wrap

June 28, 2012 by Dan Rafter, Online Campaigns Manager

Mitt Romney won the Utah primary this week, adding delegates to the GOP nomination he locked up last month, and bringing his total delegate count to 1,522, according to the Associated Press. Utah’s primary was the last, bringing to an end a presidential primary season which highlighted just how successfully anti-LGBT organizations have exerted control over some candidates.

Mitt Romney is no friend to the LGBT community. If we hope to continue achieving victories in our fight for full equality, we must recognize the threat he presents, work to educate others, and show up at the polls in force for President Obama.

Romney exhibits blatant disregard for LGBT families – refusing to recognize that same-sex couples and individuals can (and do) provide healthy, loving homes for the hundreds of thousands of children in need of forever families. He stands against the majority of Americans and refuses to support either marriage equality or civil unions (even President George W. Bush supported civil unions when in office.) Perhaps most troubling, Romney signed NOM’s Marriage Pledge, which binds him to vigorously defend the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act, push for a federal marriage amendment (which would essentially divorce couples already married in states with marriage equality), appoint only anti-LGBT judges, and set up a commission to investigate allegations of “harassment” against opponents of equality.

As if all of that isn’t troubling enough, a quick look at Romney’s recent actions indicate just how locked out the LGBT community would be in a Romney White House. The one openly gay top campaign official in the Romney camp was promptly forced out immediately after his hiring, following an outcry from anti-LGBT extremists. Campaign officials even reportedly told the official, Richard Grennell, to “shut up” before a conference call with reporters on foreign policy – the specific topic he was hired to speak about.

We face a clear choice this fall. President Obama has fought for historic advances in our community – from being the first sitting president to support marriage equality, to elevating the pervasive problem of bullying, to repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” and signing the Matthew Shepard Act, the first LGBT-inclusive federal civil rights law. Mitt Romney doesn’t support even the most basic forms of relationship recognition; doesn’t see anti-LGBT bullying as a problem, and thinks federal workplace protections for LGBT people are an unnecessary burden for employers. Learn more about why Mitt Romney is so dangerous for our community at www.hrc.org/mittnmatch.

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