Here's what Romney really did.
At the beginning of his governorship, Romney opposed same-sex marriage and civil unions, but advocated tolerance and supported some domestic partnership benefits.[144][152][153] Faced with the dilemma of choosing between same-sex marriage or civil unions after the November 2003 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision legalizing same-sex marriages (Goodridge v. Department of Public Health), Romney reluctantly backed a state constitutional amendment in February 2004 that would have banned same-sex marriage but still allow civil unions, viewing it as the only feasible way to ban same-sex marriage in Massachusetts.[154] In May 2004, Romney instructed town clerks to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, but citing a 1913 law that barred out-of-state residents from getting married in Massachusetts if their union would be illegal in their home state, no marriage licenses were to be issued to out-of-state same-sex couples not planning to move to Massachusetts.[152][155] In June 2005, Romney abandoned his support for the compromise amendment, stating that the amendment confused voters who oppose both same-sex marriage and civil unions.[152] Instead, Romney endorsed a petition effort led by the Coalition for Marriage & Family that would have banned same-sex marriage and made no provisions for civil unions.[152] In 2004 and 2006, he urged the U.S. Senate to vote in favor of the Federal Marriage Amendment.[156][157]
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitt_Romney
Romney did not have to do anything. Goodrich unconstitutionally (MA Constitution) instructed the legislature to change the marriage laws, which they refused to do. Should have been the end of the issue, but Mitt sprang to the rescue!
As I stated above, no mass laws changed.
As a Romney-bot, and possible Wikipedia author, you could have written that yourself. Some objective reference HA! I especially like the efforts at finessing such as "reluctantly backed". True wordsmithing from the mittens team!
This was settled four years ago when Romney ran the first time. Unlike what is stated in your quote, the Mass Court did not legalize gay marriage. All their decision did was order the Mass legislature to change the law on the books that prohibited gays from marrying. Even the Mass Court in its orders stated it could not constitutionally change the law itself. But the legislature didn’t do anything. So it was Romney to the rescue for the gays. He ordered the Justices of the peace and the clerks to marry gays, or they would be fired. No law was changed by the legislature which is what the Mass Court had demanded.
But the quote correctly stated that Romney was reluctant about backing a state constitutional amendment defending marriage. They asked him about supporting one in 2002 when something could have been done, but he refused saying that it would be too extreme a measure. He later changed his mind and reluctantly supported one in 2004, but since gay marriage had already been instituted by him, it was too late. The damage had already been done. Once Romney gave the gays what they wanted, the democrats who controlled the Mass legislature saw no need to do anything more. To this day the legislature has not allowed the people of Mass to decide anything. So by Romney’s executive order we have gay marriage in Massachusetts.
And regardless of what the liberal Wikipedia has to say, Mitt Romney is the real reason there is gay marriage in Massachusetts today.
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Trying to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, I see.