Attack update: Oct. 15, 2006

The attack: “Here in Massachusetts, activist judges struck a blow to the foundation of civilization — the family. What [the judges] ignored is that marriage is not primarily about adults; marriage is about the nurturing and development of children. … Every child deserves a mother and a father.”
—Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney at the Family Research Council’s “Liberty Sunday” event, referring to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s decision in favor of marriage equality in Goodridge v. Dept. of Public Health.

Significance: Romney, a possible presidential contender in 2008, is the latest to use the empty “activist” slogan. Anyone who goes beyond the slogan and actually reads the Goodridge decision will see that that the court specifically addressed the question of childrearing, exposing the illogic of Romney’s attack. The court explained that the failure to provide same-sex couples with access to civil marriage had operated to “penalize children by depriving them of state benefits because the state disapproves of their parents’ sexual orientation.” Moreover, in arguing the Goodridge case, the state “readily concede[d] that people in same-sex couples may be excellent parents.”

As the Goodridge court concluded, “Excluding same-sex couples from civil marriage will not make children of opposite-sex marriages more secure, but it does prevent children of same-sex couples from enjoying the immeasurable advantages that flow from the assurance of a stable family structure in which children will be reared, educated and socialized.” Romney either did not read the court’s decision, misunderstood it or willfully chose to disregard what the court actually had to say in an attempt to score political points using the tired rhetoric of “judicial activism.”