Mitt Romney

Liberty Sunday Address on Gay Marriage

delivered 15 October 2006 at Tremont Temple Baptist Church, Boston MA

Audio mp3 of Address

[AUTHENTICITY CERTIFIED: Text version below transcribed directly from audio]

Welcome to this historic city.

And you know that the authors of liberty recognized a divine Creator who bequeathed to us certain inalienable rights. They affirmed freedom of religion, and they proscribed the establishment of any one religion.

But today there are some people who are trying to establish one religion: the religion of secularism. They not only reject traditional values, they reject the values of our founders and they cast aside the wisdom of the ages.

Their allies are activist judges -- and here in Massachusetts activist judges struck a blow to the foundation of civilization: the family. They ruled that our Constitution requires people of the same gender to marry.

I believe their error occurred because they focused on adult rights. They said that if heterosexual adults can marry, then homosexual couples have to also be able to marry to have equal rights.

But what they ignored is that marriage is not primarily about adults. Marriage is about the nurturing and development of children. A child's development is enhanced by the nurturing of both genders. Every child deserves a mother and a father.

Of course, the principal burden of this court's ruling doesn't fall on adults -- it falls on children.

We're asked to change the state birth certificate. To prevent "heterocentricity," mother and father would become "Parent A" and "Parent B."

An elementary school teacher reads to her second graders from a book titled "The King and the King," about a prince who marries a prince -- and a second grader's father is denied the right to have his child taken out of that classroom while the book is being read.

Our state's most difficult-to-place adoptive children may no longer be placed by Catholic Charities because they favor homes where there's a mother and a father.

The price of same-sex marriage is paid by the children. Our fight for marriage, then, should focus on the needs of children, not the rights of adults.

In fact, as Americans, I believe that we should show an outpouring of respect and tolerance for all people. I believe God loves all of his children, that no one is abhorred -- that regardless of the differences and different choices, we should show that same respect. As Americans, we must vigorously reject discrimination and bigotry.

Massachusetts is on the frontline of marriage, but unless we adopt a federal amendment to protect marriage, what's happening here will unquestionably enter every other state. This spreading secular religion -- and its substitute values -- cannot be allowed to weaken the foundation of the family, or the faith of our fathers who "more than life, their country loved."

 Thank you so much.