Romney and gays. (Originally posted 10/18/02 at 10 a.m.) Globe columnist Brian McGrory today neatly demonstrates the silliness of criticizing Republican gubernatorial candidate Mitt Romney for giving money to his alma mater, Brigham Young University, despite its anti-gay policies. As McGrory notes, BYU is a Mormon institution that reflects the doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Romney, of course, is an active member. Why, McGrory asks, isn't Democrat Shannon O'Brien's Catholicism raised as an issue for its own many departures from liberal orthodoxy?

In any case, my Phoenix colleague Seth Gitell wrote an online piece yesterday reminding people that the BYU story the Globe broke as "news" this week was something he'd written about in great detail last April. Still, the overarching point is that Romney is not a leader on gay and lesbian rights -- not even close. Whereas O'Brien supports Vermont-style civil unions and now says she would sign a same-sex-marriage bill if it crossed her desk, Romney's advocacy goes no further than domestic-partnership benefits -- important, to be sure, but so '80s.