Santorum: Romney ’To the Left’ of Obama On Gay Marriage
Earlier last week, former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum accused fellow GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney of being more liberal than President Obama on the issue of gay marriage, reported On Top Magazine in a Nov. 15 article.
Santorum stated his opinion during an interview on Laura Ingraham's radio show. One of Ingraham's questions to Santorum was how Romney would react to a proposed repeal of the 1996 law, the Defense of Marriage ACT (DOMA).
"I would argue that Mitt Romney, as governor of Massachusetts, was to the left of Barack Obama on the issue of gay marriage," Santorum replied.
"If you want to see the contrast, the contrast is there. [I'm a] solid conservative who fought for the federal marriage amendment as opposed to Mitt Romney, who issued gay marriage licenses and actually violated the constitution of Massachusetts to institute gay marriage in his state," the politician said. "One of the reasons I do talk about the past is because I have the best record in the field," he added.
DOMA is a federal law that defines marriage as a legal union between a man and a woman. It prevents the government from recognizing same-sex marriages but has been found unconstitutional in many states, such as Massachusetts.
Romney was governor of Massachusetts in 2004 when it became the first state to legalize gay marriage. Initially he was against same-sex marriages and civil unions but supported some domestic partnership benefits. In 2003, Romney backed a state amendment that would allow civil unions and in 2004 he allowed town clerks to issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples.
In Oct., Obama said in an interview with ABC that his views on gay marriage are still evolving, the Huffington Post reported. His administration has declared parts of DOMA unconstitutional and would not enforce DOMA but would not defend it in court.
"We don't believe in the kind of smallness that says it's okay for a stage full of political leaders -- one of whom could end up being the president of the United States -- being silent when an American soldier is booed. We don't believe in that," the president said at a Human Rights Campaign fundraising dinner.
More notably back in September, Obama helped eliminate the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy, which prohibited military officials from being openly gay in the military.