With the world focused on London, it’s worth taking a look back at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, where then-organizer Mitt Romney helped make the Games “one of the most gay-friendly games in Olympic history.” Back then, human resources director Ed Enyon was meeting with gay activists, who wanted an LGBT presence on the Organizing Committee and in the SLC Games’ workforce.
According to Mother Jones writer Stephanie Mencimer, Enyon was on board—and so was Romney. “[Mitt] was very, very supportive of increasing the diversity of the workforce. He was proud that we met with these various groups and had them on committees. He was very appreciative and very complimentary,” Enyon tells Mencimer.
Given the heavy Mormon presence on the Salt Lake City Olympic Organizing Committee (SLOC), you might think that was just talk. But the committee came through:
The SLOC appointed two representatives to serve on the volunteer recruiting committee. One person—[Michael] Marriott—was tapped to represent gays. Salt Lake attorney Laura Miliken Gray was selected to represent the lesbians. Eynon also connected them with the director of international athlete services so they could reach out to LGBT athletes in other countries. In addition, SLOC set up volunteer recruiting booths at the Utah Pride festival and the Utah Gay Rodeo. It held job fairs at the Gay and Lesbian Community Center. It even recruited volunteers in gay bars to make sure that the LGBT community was represented at the Games.
In 2012 that might seem like standard practice, but Romney’s approval helped make the 2002 Games one of the most LGBT-positive to date.
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Gray says the Romney she encountered then was “fair minded and inclusive.” She’s singing a different tune now: “We were good enough to volunteer at the Olympics, but we’re not good enough for equal rights now.”
Photo: Seamas Culligan/ZUMA Press, dbking
Triple S
Don’t you just love politics?
tjr101
This picture will certainly go over well in the bible belt, hope it goes to good use lol
Cam
So lets see,
Dan Avery has written multiple articles attacking Jews even though it is the largest organized religion in the U.S. that supports gay marriage.
He refuses to run articles on the latest Mormon efforts to attack the community.
He has written articles that falsely claim Chik Fil A won’t be effected by it’s position on gay issues and insinuating that gays shouldn’t boycott.
and has written posts on here that basically always seem to attack the gay community for becoming upset at injustice.
NOW he writes a favorable article about Mitt Romney supposedly being gay friendly….of course he left out the part where Romney went before Congress to demand the U.S. constitution be amended to outlaw gay marriage, AND after marriage passed in MA. he dug up a century old law to prevent gays from out of state coming there to marry.
Additionally, he stated he would never have signed the DADT repeal.
But you know, apparently Dan Avery doesn’t like people or groups that support gays, and loves people who don’t.
Glennmcgahee
What part of this article are you people ignoring. Romney was inclusive! Politics aside, he did the right thing. Demonize all you want while Obama just panders to you. This is the real Mitt Romney. You won’t hear about this on MSNBC.
Cam
@Glennmcgahee: said…
“What part of this article are you people ignoring. Romney was inclusive! Politics aside, he did the right thing. Demonize all you want while Obama just panders to you. This is the real Mitt Romney. You won’t hear about this on MSNBC.”
_____________
Funny but all I heard was an anecdote about somebody saying that Romney was inclusive…
And what I have is a Congressional record of Romney going before the U.S. Congress and advocating that the U.S. Constitution be altered to enshrine bigotry against gays.
What I also have is Romney’s own words when he said that he would not have signed the DADT repeal.
As for Obama “Pandering” to us. If by Pandering, you mean doing what we want, such as signing the DADT repeal, instructing the DOJ to stop enforcing DOMA or coming out in favor of gay marriage…then yeah, I’ll take that over Romney demanding an anti-gay Congressional Amendment or digging up century old laws to prevent gays from Marrying in his state.
Selrah
@Cam: “NOW he writes a favorable article about Mitt Romney supposedly being gay friendly….of course he left out the part where Romney went before Congress to demand the U.S. constitution be amended to outlaw gay marriage, AND after marriage passed in MA. he dug up a century old law to prevent gays from out of state coming there to marry.”
I didn’t take this story that way, I took it as saying Mitt Romney USED to support the gays and is not supportive of them NOW, because he is trying to appeal to the REPUBLICAN base.
Shows that Mitt Romney flip flops as he sees fit.
RJM
Romney will do what it takes to get to the top, even if it means being slightly friendly for a moment to the gay community in 2002. He is a slippery and probably very corrupt man. His lust and thirst for power has not been ultimately quenched yet. I hope people see through his real motives for presidency. It’s probably an egotistical self-fulfilling prophecy of his. If he can pay his tithings to a church that deceptively hindered marriage progress in California, I don’t see him as a friend to the LGBT community one iota
Belize
Oh please. More people need equal marriage rights (which Romney never supported) than a gay friendly Olympics (which he ALLEGEDLY supported.)
How much did you get paid to write this without even mentioning ANY of Romney’s anti-LGBT behavior which would have definitely been relevant to this article? And how much of a bonus did you get when you thanked him for making the Olympics “gay-friendly” even though that info only came from accounts of his “gay-friendliness” and not actual concrete evidence?
This is really demoralizing.
Belize
@Cam: “Funny but all I heard was an anecdote about somebody saying that Romney was inclusive…”
True. I find it funny how anecdotes are treated as facts that merit a “thank you” from a man who pretty much spat at our faces during his congressional run.
The one thing I hate about PR is bad PR masked as good, unbiased journalism. It’s sickening.
@Glennmcgahee: “Romney was inclusive! Politics aside, he did the right thing.”
…says a bunch of people who worked with him. The funny thing is, we don’t need those people to know that he’s not on our side politically speaking. And I’m sure you GOProuds would love it if we can just focus on all the juicy-goodness Romney has to offer, but none of that juicy goodness is in the political arena–which is the more important side of things given that he is in politics.
B
No. 2 · tjr101 wrote, “This picture will certainly go over well in the bible belt, hope it goes to good use lol”
The picture is probably a composite – you’d expect to see Romney’s shadow on the wall and it is missing.
Aside from that, the best explanation for Romney’s behavior is probably “etch a sketch”.
BlogShag
@ Glennmcgahee, LOL! The real Romney? Now that’s the laugh of the century. That guy is anything but real and feels about as a soulless as CGI graphics
Neo
@Cam:
Well said, Given the fact Avery has posted dozens of these abusive and self hating articles I think it is time he is shown the door, he clearly is not gay friendly in his politics and it is absolutely reflected in his lack of will to criticise the people who wish to inflict the most harm on the entire community.
Sammy
So, Romney was nice to some gays for a few minutes, once.
Alex
That is bizzaro rational Mitt. Before he went crazy trying to appeal to crazies running on the GOP ticket.
Daez
@Alex: No it is not. Let us not forget Mittens was torturing gays way back in college days. This is simply Mitt pandering to the gays to further his career. The man would sell his mother’s soul just to get ahead.
Chuck
@Glennmcgahee: HAHAHAHAHAHA….
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA….
NO! REALLY… STOP IT HAHA! I can’t stop laughing!!
If anyone things Romney is going to stand up for gay rights or is any more ‘inclusive’ than is necessary to get the vote, is either deluded and stupid, or a downright retard.
Chuck
@Glennmcgahee: HAHAHAHAHAHA….
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA….
NO! REALLY… STOP IT HAHA! I can’t stop laughing!!
If anyone thinks Romney is going to stand up for gay rights or is any more ‘inclusive’ than is necessary to get the vote, is either deluded and stupid, or a downright retard.