Traditional Marriage Advocates Launch Another Ballot Campaign
Amy Lambiaso from the State House News Service
       Gov. Mitt Romney threw his support Thursday behind the latest citizen effort to ban same sex marriage in Massachusetts, an effort gay marriage supporters immediately denounced and said was unlikely to succeed.
       The governor’s announcement came an hour after a coalition of gay marriage opponents and religious groups announced their campaign to put a question banning such marriages on the 2008 ballot. At a press conference here, Romney called the latest amendment “superior” to what is currently pending because it addresses only marriage.
       The Legislature voted 105-92 last March endorsing a constitutional amendment that bans gay marriage while allowing civil unions for same-sex couples, a result that surfaced after a long political and procedural battle. That amendment must be endorsed by 101 lawmakers in its same form this session for it to reach the 2006 ballot.
       “A matter such as this is important enough and is fundamental enough to our society that we have for our citizens the optimal amendment and not something that is confused by multiple issues,” Romney said during a press conference today to announce his support for the amendment, noting that his administration was not involved in its development. And although Romney said he does not plan on actively lobbying for the campaign, he would not rule it out. The governor often mentions gay
marriage in his speeches to other Republican groups throughout the country, emphasizing his opposition to gay marriage.
       “I’ll be managing my own campaign and working on campaigns for other Republican candidates, so I don’t anticipate being involved directly in campaign efforts for this amendment, but I wouldn’t close the door on that necessarily,” Romney said. “I will be happy to continue to emphasize my view that marriage should be a relationship between a man and a woman and I hope the voters of Massachusetts get the same chance that voters in 11 other states got last year.”

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