Governor Romney’s Fight for Marriage
I think Mitt would take it to the Democrat nominee on this topic — David French:
From the moment the activist judges in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court handed down their breathtakingly arrogant decision in Goodrich v. Department of Public Health, he took decisive action to make sure Massachusetts would not grant marriage licenses to out-of-state couples, thereby guaranteeing that Massachusetts would not become the “Las Vegas of gay marriage” and trigger a constitutional crisis as couples returned to their home states with Massachusetts licenses. He also initiated and led an effort to amend the Massachusetts constitution by referendum and has gone so far as to file suit against the Commonwealth’s own legislature after they took action to prevent the people of Massachusetts from voting on that amendment. Critically, he has become a leading national advocate for marriage, with his optimistic and uplifting message dominating the public debate. Rather than casting the debate as one over adult rights, the Governor has made the best possible case for marriage: noting what we all should know but too often forget (at great cultural cost) — marriage does not exist for the convenience and enjoyment of adults but as the best possible way of raising and nurturing children. The credible defenders of marriage in Massachusetts all agree: Mitt Romney has been an invaluable supporter and advocate.
Rather than becoming what the media would undoubtedly call the “George Wallace of gay marriage” by standing in the courthouse door and barring couples from receiving marriage licenses, the Governor chose legal means to resist the court’s decision. And his decision was correct. It is now clear that the Goodrich decision represented not the beginning of the end of traditional marriage but instead the high-water mark of the same-sex marriage movement. Since that decision, homosexual marriage activists have been on the defensive virtually everywhere, losing referenda and losing court decisions. Had Governor Romney not offered a principled and effective defense of marriage, the outcome may very well have been quite different.