Romney Refused Correct Birth Certificates for Children of Same-Sex Parents

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore

When Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was governor of Massachusetts, he refused to let the state’s Registry of Vital Records and Statistics revise its birth certificate forms to correctly show the legal parents of babies born to same-sex couples, the Boston Globe reports.

After Massachusetts legalized marriage for same-sex couples, the Registry said it needed to change the box for “mother” to “mother or second parent,” and the same for fathers. Romney, however, “insisted that his top legal staff individually review the circumstances of every birth to same-sex parents.” Only after the lawyers approved could hospital officials and town clerks “cross out by hand the word ‘father’ [or mother —DR] on individual birth certificates, and then write in ‘second parent,’ in ink,” writes Murray Waas of the Globe.

Waas further details “the extraordinary effort by the Republican governor to prevent routine recording of births to gay parents,” and the delays this caused in issuing birth certificates, sometimes beyond the 10-day legal deadline.

Note that the U.S. State Department last year revised its passport application forms to say “Mother or Parent 1″ and “Father or Parent 2.” I’d wager that would quickly get changed back under a Romney presidency.

Waas also noted that Romney reiterated his stance on gay parents in a 2005 speech in South Carolina (my emphasis): “Some gays are actually having children born to them. It’s not right on paper. It’s not right in fact. Every child has a right to a mother and father.

Is it just me, or would anyone else like to see a debate between Romney and Zach Wahls, Iowa state debate champion, who just happens to have two moms?

Someone also reminded me today that Romney, too, had dug up an old miscegenation law to prevent same-sex couples from other states from marrying in Massachusetts. (His successor, Deval Patrick, signed a repeal of the law—so come on over to our fair state if you’re thinking of getting hitched.)

You are planning to vote on November 6 (or before, if allowed in your state), aren’t you?

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