As governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney refused to change the language on birth certificates for the children of same-sex couples, forcing individual state review of birth certificates for gay parents, the Boston Globe reports.
When the Supreme Court of Massachusetts legalized same-sex marriage in 2008, the state Registry of Vital Records and Statistics pushed to revise the language on birth certificates issued to gay couples by changing the word “father” to “father or second parent.” But then-Gov. Romney, who opposed gay marriage and child-rearing by same-sex couples, denied the request. Instead, he opted to have his own lawyers review every single birth to a same-sex couple and have changes to the certificates made by hand in ink. This was done throughout Romney’s tenure despite warnings from the Department of Public Health that this practice could put these children at a disadvantage later in life, according to documents obtained by the Globe.
Read more at the Globe.
