After last week's presidential candidate debate, Bay Buchanan talked to reporters in the spin room as a surrogate and senior adviser to the Romney campaign. It didn't generate much attention at the time, but Buchanan toldThe Advocate that a Romney administration would treat marriage as "a state issue" and would "not get in the way of what states decide to do on marriage and adoption."
So, was this a new attempt at moderation? Maybe another issue receiving the Etch A Sketch treatment? As it turns out, no -- Buchanan simply came down with a temporary case of Romnesia, and soon after after disavowed her own comments.
...Buchanan issued a clarification to BuzzFeed this afternoon following initial publication of this story, writing, "Governor Romney supports a federal marriage amendment to the Constitution that defines marriage as an institution between a man and a woman. Governor Romney also believes, consistent with the 10th Amendment, that it should be left to states to decide whether to grant same-sex couples certain benefits, such as hospital visitation rights and the ability to adopt children. I referred to the Tenth Amendment only when speaking about these kinds of benefits -- not marriage."
So, according to the campaign, a Romney administration would like to write into constitutional stone a prohibition on marriage equality, which in turn would eliminate existing state laws that allow same-sex couples to get legally married. Romney would also like to see states have the power to stop gay adoption and prohibit hospital visitation rights for gay families.
Also note, by signing the National Organization for Marriage's candidates pledge, Romney has also promised, not only to support an anti-gay constitutional amendment, but also to appoint federal judges who don't see a constitutional right to same-sex marriage and to back the Defense of Marriage Act. Romney's running mate, Paul Ryan, has also endorsed amending the U.S. Constitution to prevent marriage equality.
On this issue, Romney/Ryan is far to the right of Bush/Cheney, even as the nation is becoming more progressive on gay civil rights.
