Scott Wooledge currently has an excellent diary up addressing the monumental flip-flops Mitt Romney has undergone around his position on equality for LGBT Americans. I urge you to take a look.
In an attempt to clarify his stance, this past week Bay Buchanan said Romney would leave it to the states to decide what to do about our rights. “He very much supports traditional marriage, but he’s also a very strong advocate for the Tenth Amendment. It’s a state issue.”
Thank you for the clarification, Ms. Buchanan.
But wait, not so fast. Apparently she overstepped herself. Today she clarified her clarification to make it clear that Mitt still supports a Federal ban on marriage equality. From Buzzfeed :
Governor Romney supports a federal marriage amendment to the Constitution that defines marriage as an institution between a man and a woman. Governor Romney also believes, consistent with the 10th Amendment, that it should be left to states to decide whether to grant same-sex couples certain benefits, such as hospital visitation rights and the ability to adopt children. I referred to the Tenth Amendment only when speaking about these kinds of benefits, not marriage.
Classic Mitt Romney. Say something, either deny you said it or say the exact opposite thing the next day, feel no shame, get no media pushback, wash, rinse and repeat. To the Romney campaign, positions are nothing but a shell game and the interest of Americans in them are nothing but a tool to his rightful ascendency. He'll damned well use us as he sees fit. Nothing new. But in that latest retraction take a very close look again at just what Buchanan said.
...it should be left to states to decide whether to grant same-sex couples certain benefits, such as hospital visitation rights /snip.
How unbelievably cruel is this new/old position? I understand that there are many Americans who oppose our right to marry and adopt children, although their numbers are growing smaller rapidly. I understand it and I am fully engaged in the battle for our equality against their narrow-minded reasoning. But to once again suggest we allow states to deny us hospital visitations? This inhumane practice came to an endin January of 2011. An overwhelming majority of people, after hearing story after story of people dying without their loved one beside them, came to the conclusion that it was profoundly barbaric. And yet here we are today, in a monumental battle against someone who will do anything or say anything to gain his throne.
His latest tactic is to once again threaten the dignity and humanity of LGBT people by denying them even the simplest concession. That we should at the very least be allowed the comfort of love as we die. It's hard to say whether Mitt Romney actually feels this way personally. It's hard to say whether Mitt Romney feels anything at all, come to think about it. But Bay Buchanan feels this way and so do those bigots he finds himself pandering to to gain his power. I'm accustomed to my life being used as a political football, but folks, that one left a mark.