Press Release - May 1st, 2012

For Immediate Release

View Online: http://lgbtde.ms/JdDVEc

May 1, 2012
Contact: Jerame Davis
202-625-1382
jdavis@stonewalldemocrats.org

Richard Grenell Resigns; Mitt Romney Stands Only for Mitt Romney

Following the resignation of Richard Grenell from the Mitt Romney campaign, National Stonewall Democrats Executive Director Jerame Davis issued the following statement:

"Mitt Romney's Etch-a-Sketch-style attempt to shake away his anti-LGBT stances has backfired. The hiring of openly gay Richard Grenell was a crassly cynical political move by Romney to fool LGBT voters into believing he's not as anti-gay as his statements would have you believe. Grenell's subsequent resignation after being mercilessly hounded by religious conservatives is just more proof that Mitt Romney is no friend of LGBT Americans.

"From the moment the Romney campaign announced his appointment less than two weeks ago, the cacophony of vitriol from hate groups like the Family Research Council and the American Family Association has been non-stop. Neither his qualifications for the job nor his conservative bona fides matter in the least to these rabid homophobes. All that really matters is that Grenell is gay.

"Yet through every lie, every anti-gay remark, every bit of the nastiness, Mitt Romney sat silently and let the bigoted wing of his party control his personnel choices. Either Mitt Romney is a coward who is afraid to stand up to the anti-LGBT bullies in his party, or he is fine with an America where LGBT people can have a career only if they're willing to work quietly from the confines of the closet.

"Gay Republicans should be outraged and must demand that the organizations that represent them refuse to support Mitt Romney's presidential aspirations in any way."

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National Stonewall Democrats is the national voice of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and allied Democrats, with more than 80 local affiliates across the nation. Stonewall Democrats works to elect more pro-equality Democrats regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity - and to improve the Democratic Party on issues important to LGBT Democrats.