Word: romney
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...TIME/CNN poll conducted last week, 62% of those questioned opposed gay marriage. With an eye to numbers like that, Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, a Republican, is urging the adoption of a state constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. But under state law, amendments have to be approved by two successive sessions of the legislature and then by a voter referendum--a process that would take at least three years. Four Cambridge city-council members already have a plan that would begin issuing symbolic marriage licenses there as soon as this week...
...course, Massachusetts’ evangelical past is never far offstage, and already such unfortunately powerful voices as Governor W. Mitt Romney have come out against formalizing the right that the state’s highest legal body has outlined. In place of marriage, Romney has suggested that gays and lesbians be allowed “civil unions”—contracts with all the legal benefits of marriage but without the name. It is as yet unclear whether the SJC’s ruling would allow this hair-splitting restriction to pass into law. What is perfectly clear...
...Romney has simultaneously launched another last-ditch effort to deny homosexuals the rights of other citizens, urging legislators to begin the lengthy process of amending the Massachusetts constitution. For this proud defender of an unfairly exclusive institution, nothing less will suffice than a state constitutional amendment that explicitly bars gays from the institution of marriage. It seems unlikely that this backwards provision will get through the legislative process any time soon, but it is imperative that Massachusetts’ lawmakers take action now to make the SJC’s ruling a reality. Knocking down the barriers to free citizenship...
...Murphy said that after conferring with lawyers—including some from the New England gay rights group that brought the case before the SJC—the councillors decided that passing such a resolution might prompt legal opposition from Gov. W. Mitt Romney and delay the licenses for longer than the 180-day period...
Cambridge’s eagerness to take advantage of the court ruling would have defied an order from the state public health department prohibiting cities from issuing marriage licenses to gay couples until after the six-month stay period. Romney told the Associated Press last week that any licenses issued during this time would be considered invalid...