Mitt Romney: No Future For Our Children

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Dear children, Mitt Romney doesn’t give a shit about you. No, dear parents, neither about yours nor anyone else’s, regardless of whether or not they’re queer. I’m sorry, but there’s no other way to put it. There are many things that aren’t quite right when it comes to Mitt Romney – including his recent assertion that Syria is Iran’s route to the sea; note that wasn’t the first time he said it – and this is another one.

If he could, he would throw every single American child under the bus, if he could make one more cent and/or appease his radical right-wing voters that way. Should this man become president, he won’t hesitate to destroy Medicaid and Medicare – systems that provide millions of adults and children with the healthcare they otherwise couldn’t dream of accessing. Romney would rather see your kids shot on the streets than hire more cops to try to make them safer. He would rather see your kids die in a burning house than hire more firefighters. And forget about your child getting the education he or she needs to get a job that will pay enough for them to be able to live reasonably well, maybe start a family of their own some day, and buy a house or flat.

And then there’s the latest news about his blatant indifference – to put it very mildly – towards children of queer families. The Boston Globe obtained documents detailing the road blocks Romney put up for same-sex parents obtaining birth certificates for their children during his time as Governor of Massachusetts. Changing “father” to “father or second parent” on the certificates would’ve been so devastating for his closed mind that he rather let the children pay for it: he required every birth to same-sex parents to be reviewed by his lawyers, and only after their permission could the birth certificates be changed – by crossing out the word “father” and then writing “second parent” in ink. In at least two cases his lawyers refused birth certificates to be issued. In one case, because the couple requested “wife” to be written on the certificate instead of “second parent”, and in another because the couple wasn’t married.

According to The Boston Globe’s acquired documents, Peggy Wiesenberg, the deputy general counsel of the Department of Public Health, warned Romney’s general counsel Mark Nielsen that “[c]rossouts and handwritten alterations constituted ‘violations of existing statutes’ and harmed ‘the integrity of the vital record-keeping system’. The changes also would impair law enforcement and security efforts in a post-9/11 world, and children with altered certificates would be likely to ‘encounter [difficulties] later in life… as they try to register for school, or apply for a passport or a driver’s license, or enlist in the military, or register to vote.’” Romney, of course, did not and does not care about any of that.

In 2006, Romney’s administration refused to let an anti-bullying guide be published because it contained the words “bisexual” and “transgender”. In 2010 the National Transgender Discrimination Survey revealed that transgender kids attempt suicide at a rate more than 25 times the national average. Another study revealed that bisexual teens are more likely to be victims of bullying than straight, gay, or lesbian teens. Apparently he thinks bisexual and transgender children are agents of a “radical agenda” that should just be left to be bullied into suicide. Also in 2006, Romney vetoed a $158,000 budget line item for counseling LGBT victims of violence and threatened to shut down the Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth.

Romney might only be one of many people who think in such ways, but he is currently one of the most dangerous ones – and running for the office of the President of the United States. An office in which he would have more power than I would ever entrust a person so devoid of empathy and full of egoism and cruelty.

You can help keeping him out of the Oval Office. Spread awareness by sharing the information. Raise a stink about it, even if you lose a Facebook-“friend” or two in the process. Join and support the folks over at Wipe Out Homophobia, Wipe Out Biphobia, and Wipe Out Transphobia in their efforts to eradicate prejudice and misinformation. Debate with your Republican parents or grandparents. There are many things you can do, but most importantly…

… go vote, and make the right decision! You want your kids to get the healthcare, education, equal rights, and future they deserve. You don’t want them asking you why you voted for somebody who doesn’t give a flyring rat’s whiskers about them, do you?

And if you live in Maryland, Maine, Minnesota or Washington, don’t forget to also vote in favor of equal rights for your lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender children, parents, siblings, friends, colleagues, acquaintances, grandparents, neighbors, and all other fellow humans whom you might have never met before, but whose right to receive as much legal protection for their families as you do depends on your vote. (Assuming, of course, you’re not in a same-sex relationship yourself, in which case I’m probably preaching to the choir.)