"MITT
GETS WORSE' PROJECT WARNS OF ROMNEY'S ANTI-LGBT RECORD | Modeled as satire on the
anti-bullying "It Gets Better" project, American Bridge 21st Century and
Courage Campaign Super PAC have launched the "Mitt Gets Worse" campaign. In
testimonials, various activists explain how harmful Mitt Romney's anti-LGBT
positions are and how much worse he would make the U.S. for LGBT people if he
were president.
Mitt
Romney has already gone on record as an enemy of the poor and disenfranchised.
He has bumbled his way through African American voters to the point that being
considered a "friend" is now out of the question. Now a group of LGBT
activists want you to know that Romney's reign would be one of setbacks, if not
one of terror. And they've started what could be one of the most creative
series of anti-Romney ads to date.
If you
take a look at the wikipedia entry for Mitt Romney's stance on LGBT issues, it
paints a portrait of a man whose entire career as governor and Presidential
candidate is obsessed with flip-flopping as the political wind blows:
In July 2011, Romney
refused to sign a pledge opposing
gay marriage, a pledge that was being circulated by "The Family
Leader", a conservative Christian group in Iowa. [232] On August 4, 2011, a month later,
Romney publicly denounced same-sex marriage by signing the 2012
Presidential Pledge sponsored
by the National
Organization for Marriage. [233]
And as governor of
Massachusetts, Romney also attempted to eliminate much needed services for LGBT
youth - some of them homeless youth.
The
Flip-Flop, The Cave In
The portrait of a man who cares only about winning and mouthing
the right words to the right group (albeit unsuccessfully at times) formed
years ago, so it is no surprise that vultures are circling a dying
"moderate". The pressure put upon Romney to curry favor with the
Christian Right due to his Mormonism is almost tactile: you can feel the forces
of Tony Perkins, Bryan Fischer*, Pat Robertson, James Dobson and their ilk at
work, devouring any semblance of tolerance. And they will not be satisfied
until Romney states (as he did with Obama's Affordable Care Act in an address
to the NAACP), that he will push through a constitutional amendment banning gay
marriage, ban gays from the military and repeal every single advance in gay
rights for the past thirty years. And for all his posturing as a moderate
"friend" of gays and lesbians, ENDA (Employment Non-Discrimination
Act) will become a distant memory if the Christian Right manipulates him. He
may have supported gay adoption in the past, but the Christian Right will
certainly have none of that.
5 Percent Is 5 Percent
Demographics and studies have shown that over 5% of the U.S.
population is gay.** To Romney and his campaign, however, we have seen that
even higher percentages (e.g. the number of people living below the poverty
line) mean little: the bottom line is in the number of votes and if it takes
disenfranchising 5% of the population to placate 16 million Southern Baptists,
then so be it.
You know he will: Romney gives off the aroma of one ready to
placate at all costs.
Whither
Matt Rhoades?
As with the Bain Capital brouhaha, Romney's campaign manager, Matt
Rhoades, has had his hands full in delivering spin, weak responses and
veiled threats resulting from Romney's checkered past and flip-flops. How
Rhoades will handle any response to Mitt Gets Worse is anybody's guess:
ignoring it would be a big mistake, trying to present Romney as a
"friend" would anger social conservatives, and going totally to the
Right would only add to the long list of people he is willing to disenfranchise
and sacrifice.
From The
Huffington Post editorial by
Rick Jacobs of the Courage Campaign (750,000 members):
Unfortunately for millions of LGBT people in this country, we know
the Mitt we'll get. He's the Mitt that is moving in the wrong direction (as our
Facebook Timeline shows)
away from history, not towards it. For millions like us, Mitt Gets Worse. And
if elected, the country will get worse.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
1
1
1
