Oddly, in 2002, when they endorsed him, he was already stating for the record that he was against BOTH gay marriage and civil unions. And he never said he was FOR either of those in 1994, and in fact when Weld came out for them Romney didn't follow his lead.
Anyway, Romney represents the mainstream of conservative thought on gays and lesbians.
Here is what John Hindraker and the folks at Powerline had to say about this issue when it came up in 2006:
I suspect that much mainstream news analysis is filtered through the false assumption that conservatives generally hate homosexuals. Thus, if a Republican politician is friendly toward gays, appoints gays to office, speaks of protecting their civil rights, etc., this is viewed as somehow at odds with, say, opposition to gay marriage. It isn't. I think a large majority of conservatives have no ill will toward homosexuals, while at the same time believing that gay marriage would be an unwise social policy. I know that some accuse Romney of flip-flopping on gay marriage, and I haven't investigated to figure out whether that charge is true or not. In general, though, his attitude toward homosexuals sounds like it is in tune with what I described as the majority conservative view.
“Romney represents the mainstream of conservative thought on gays and lesbians.”
Two Sundays ago on Meet the Press, Romney endorsed state laws granting special “protected class” status based on homosexual behavior and thus equating such behavior legally with race, color, sex, and religion.
That certainly doesn’t represent the “mainstream of conservative thought” or even the mainstream of the general public, seeing as how only 17 states have enacted such laws, and President Bush threatened to veto Kennedy’s federal version (which Romney first endorsed, then flipped on to oppose).
As a candidate for governor in 2002, Romney opposed a Marriage Protection Amendment to his state constitution. In the 26 states that have voted on state marriage amendments, the average vote in favor was 68%.
Once again, Romney did not represent the mainstream of American thought, much less “conservative thought.”
Forgive me if I’m not impressed that in order to posture himself to run for prez, he flipped 180 degrees on that one. As he’s done on a host of issues.