New Hampshire native Bob Garon put the screws to Romney.
New Hampshire resident Bob Garon displayed the kind of guts and courage common among American military servicemen at a Mitt Romney campaign stop in his home state today. Mr. Romney didn’t return the favor.
Mr. Romney identified Mr. Garon, 63, sitting in a booth in a local restaurant, and asked his permission to sit down and speak with him. Romney commented on Mr. Garon’s hat, which identified him as a Vietnam vet. After establishing that Mr. Garon was in Vietnam at the same time Romney had completed a year of college and gone abroad to do missionary work for his church, Romney thanked Garon for his service.
Garon then asked Romey: “New Hampshire right now has some legislation kicking around about a repeal for the same-sex marriage. And all I need is a yes or a no. Do you support the repeal?”
After Romney told Garon that he unequivocally supports the repeal because “marriage is between a man and a woman,” Garon took the conversation in a direction Romney clearly wasn’t expecting:
“…You will not support any form of legislation that would change that so that servicemen would be entitled to benefits like a man and a woman? If two men get married, apparently a veteran’s spouse would not be entitled to any burial benefits or medical benefits or anything that the serviceman has devoted his time and effort to his country, and you just don’t support equality in terms of same-sex marriage?”
It’s a great question: Now that Don’t Ask Don’t Tell has been repealed, America is sending the message to gay Americans that they qualify to fight and give their lives for this country, but not to love whom they wish and follow their own pursuit of happiness as is promised in the Declaration of Independence, and enjoy the same system of taxation and health benefits as heterosexual Americans.
It’s a question that goes back a few decades, to WWII, when black Americans we welcomed and enlisted to go fight and die for their country, but not to vote at home, and still in segregated Army divisions abroad.
To this hypocrisy, Romney only answered: “The Defense of Marriage Act that exists in Washington today defines benefits, for whether for veterans or for nonveterans, as between married spouses, and for me that’s a man and af woman. And we apparently disagree.”
Disagree is probably a bit of an understatement. Goran looked Romney in the eye and said, “It’s good to know how you feel, that you do not believe that everyone is entitled to their Constitutional rights.”
At that point Mr. Romney needed to be saved by an aide who pulled him away, saying, appropriately, “Governor, we’ve got to get on with Fox News right now.” Romney left, but not before Goran got in a final admonishment: “You have to look a man in the eye to get a good answer, and you know what, governor, good luck — you’ll need it.”
In a follow-up interview with Politico (which you can watch below) Goran identifies himself as a New Hampshire native with two children from a previous marriage who later married a man. But as he points out, exasperated at all the questions, “I’m not running for President.” He’s right.
Goran is an everyday guy who has fought for and earned the right to love whoever he wants, without being judged by the likes of Mitt Romney.
Watch both videos below via Politico.
image via Shutterstock.
