Romney Draws Fire for Shift on Gay Rights

ABC News’ Teddy Davis Reports: Mitt Romney’s shifting stance on gay rights drew fire Monday from the president of the Log Cabin Republicans in advance of Tuesday’s re-introduction of the Employee Non-Discrimination Act — gay rights legislation whose main provisions Romney once supported but no longer does.

"Gov. Romney has some explaining to do about why he suddenly and dramatically changed his position on this issue," Patrick Sammon, the president of the Log Cabin Republicans, tells ABC News. "It really raises the question about whether you can trust Mitt Romney. Whether the issue is guns, gays, abortion, or other issues, his views seem to be constantly shifting and changing."

When he challenged Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., in 1994, Romney endorsed Rep. Barney Frank’s, D-Mass., Employee Non-Discrimination Act which would have prohibited employers from making decisions about hiring, firing, promoting, or compensation based on sexual orientation.

In February, Romney explained his shifting stance on the Employee Non-Discrimination Act by telling National Journal’s Marc Ambinder: "I do not support creating a special law or a special status. I’ve learned through my experience over the last decade that when you single out a particular population group for special status, it opens the door to a whole series of lawsuits, many of them frivolous and very burdensome to our employment community, and so I do not favor of specific law of that nature. What I do favor is people doing what I did, or what I tried to do, and not discriminate against people who are gay."

Sammon responded to Romney’s comments to National Journal by asking: "If the Employee Non-Discrimination Act is such a bad idea, then why didn’t he introduce legislation to repeal the state’ non-discrimination protection?"

"His rationale for explaining the flip-flop doesn’t make any sense," Sammon said in his interview with ABC News.

A Romney campaign spokesperson did not have an immediate response to Sammon.

The new version of ENDA, which will be discussed at a Tuesday press conference by Frank along with Reps. Deborah Pryce, R-Ohio, Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Chris Shays, R-Conn., seeks to protect employees from discrimination not only on the basis of sexual orientation but also on the basis of "gender identity" (i.e., it extends legal protections to transgender people as well as gays and lesbians).

The version of ENDA being introduced this year provides that preferential treatment and quotas are strictly prohibited, and that lawsuits cannot be based on statistics about the sexual orientation or gender identity of employees, according to a supporter of the legislation. It also exempts members of the Armed Forces as well as veterans’ and religious organizations. The proposed legislation does not require employers to provide benefits to domestic partners.