DES MOINES, Iowa — Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s campaign said Tuesday that he will not sign a conservative Iowa Christian group’s far-reaching pledge opposing gay marriage, making him the first Republican presidential candidate to reject it.
Two of Romney’s rivals for the Republican nomination, Minnesota U.S. Rep. Michelle Bachmann and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, have signed The Family Leader’s 14-point pledge, which calls on the candidates to denounce same-sex marriage rights, pornography, same-sex military accommodations and forms of Islamic law.
When it was first circulated last week, the introduction to the pledge stated that African-American children were more likely to be raised in two-parent households when they were born into slavery than they are today. The group struck that language and apologized after black ministers complained, but it said it stands by the rest of the document.
