Mitt Romney, Gay Marriage and the Mormon Church

Mitt Romney said something fifteen years ago that has been haunting him ever since. During his 1994 U.S. Senate campaign, where he challenged the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, Romney told the Massachusetts-based gay publication Bay Windows that he would be better on the issue of gay rights than Sen. Kennedy. And in a "Wow, I can't believe he said that in 1994" sort of statement, Romney alluded to being down with gay marriage, or at least a state's right to enact gay marriage. And that was almost a decade before Massachusetts' State Supreme Court made marriage equality a reality.

"People of integrity don't force their beliefs on others, they make sure that others can live by different beliefs they may have," Romney said a decade and a half ago, criticizing extremists in the Republican Party for using gay marriage as a wedge issue.

What a difference a decade makes. Romney jumped from that position (which at the time was, indeed, more progressive than most Democrats) to become a major champion of a federal amendment to ban same-sex marriage. He made opposition to same-sex marriage a staple of his failed 2008 campaign for the GOP Presidential nomination, and has continued to toe a line that same-sex marriage threatens traditional families (albeit much quieter than some of his adversaries).

Now, enter Californians Against Hate. This group, led by former GOP political consultant Fred Karger, has worked pretty darn hard over the past three years to look at the names, faces and organizations fighting hard to prevent gay rights. Karger, who is gay, may have worked for some of the most shiver-inducing political minds (including Lee Atwater and Ronald Reagan) of the 1980s and 90s. But now he's working to expose the financiers and powerhouses that lie behind anti-gay measures like California's Proposition 8 and Maine's Question 1. What has Karger found?

That Mitt Romney's own church -- the Mormon Church -- has provided an unbelievably large amount of money and resources to fight gay marriage, including $30 million to eliminate gay marriage in California. Now, Karger and Californians Against Hate are hoping to target Romney, in hopes that he'll channel some of that love he had for gays and lesbians in 1994, and use it to transform the institutional Mormon Church so that they stop becoming a bank account for anti-gay ballot measures and groups.

This work has prompted activists to place full-page newspaper ads in towns where Romney is appearing, urging him to talk to his faith leaders, and help to change their hearts and minds on issues related to gay rights. The latest reared its head (or, well, its ink) in Iowa, where Romney was campaigning for the 2012 GOP Presidential nomination appearing as part of a tour for his book, No Apology: The Case for American Greatness. (No word on whether Romney's "No Apology" line can also refer to his 1994 comments supporting gay rights...)

According to the ads placed by Californians Against Hate, Romney is in a unique position, given his prominence, to influence elders with the Mormon Church. "As a national political leader and influential member of the Mormon Church, Mitt Romney could persuade church leaders to end their 15 years of active involvement, including their massive financial support, to oppose equal rights for gay and lesbian Americans," the ads read. And they've appeared in papers as varied as the Boston Globe, the Des Moines Register, and the Iowa State Daily Student.

It's all part of a campaign by Karger to unmask the institutional Mormon Church's involvement in funding anti-gay marriage campaigns. Karger's due diligence has uncovered a number of facts about the institutional Mormon Church's involvement in funding some of the biggest anti-gay activities of the past few years. The Church coordinated fundraising efforts to place California's Proposition 8 on the ballot. The Church bailed out the Yes on 8 folks when, a few months into their campaign, they lagged in fundraising and attention. And the Church is intricately involved with the National Organization for Marriage, which has become certainly the loudest anti-gay marriage organization in the country. (For a great Mother Jones article on Karger's investigative work, click here. It's a PDF, but it's worth it alone for the picture of Karger dressed up as a pantsless Lone Ranger.)

Politics can be a shrewd business, and flip-flopping on political beliefs is certainly not the sole property of a Senator named Kerry. But one has to wonder if the sentiment that allowed Romney to say "People of integrity don't force their beliefs on others, they make sure that others can live by different beliefs they may have," still exists inside his brain.

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