To Mr. R.

Clarke Cooper and the National Board of Directors of the Log Cabin Republicans: As fellow members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, were writing to urge you to withhold your support nomination of Mitt Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan for President and Vice President of the United States of America. By selecting Ryan as his running mate, Romney has left no doubt his administration would stand committed to undoing our progress towards equality for all Americans. The Log Cabin Republicans have played a strong role in determining the course of our movement. Without your hard work, we would not have made the gains we have, including repealing Dont Ask, Dont Tell and establishing marriage equality in a number of states, especially New York. Right now, youre on the eve of an important choice. Courage Campaign Super PAC and American Bridge 21st Century have come together to research Mitts record on LGBT issues and film an oral history of organizers who fought for LGBT equality in Massachusetts during Mitts term. And when you look at what weve uncovered, one fact is overwhelmingly clear: Mitt Gets Worse. Based on our research and his publicly stated policy positions, we believe that a President Romney would reverse decades of progress weve all made fighting for full LGBT equality. Here are just a few highlights of his record as governor of Massachusetts: In a 1994 letter to Log Cabin Republicans, Mitt Romney promised to promote LGBT equality. He said he would be better than Sen. Ted Kennedy on LGBT rights. [Boston Globe, 11/26/06] In 2002, Romney campaigned for Governor of Massachusetts at Pride events [Boston Globe, 11/26/06] and endorsed civil unions. [Boston Globe, 11/20/03] Early in his term as governor, Gov. Romney appointed openly gay people to his administration. [Boston Globe, 11/26/06]

Later in his term, Gov. Romney launched a campaign to amend the Massachusetts constitution to ban same-sex marriage, including civil unions [The Boston Herald, 11/10/06]. He also invoked an unused law from 1913 to ban outof-state same-sex couples from marrying in Massachusetts [The Boston Globe, 9/30/06], pushed legislation to ban same-sex couples from adopting [CNN, 3/16/06], and gave tens of thousands of dollars to anti-gay organizations, including ones seeking so-called ex-gay therapy. [Human Rights Campaign, 1/24/12] In 2006, Gov. Romney retracted his support of a federal anti-discrimination law on employment. [National Review, 12/14/06] In 2007, he reversed his previous support for repealing Dont Ask, Dont Tell, because it appeared to be successful, a position he holds until this day. [Los Angeles Times, 11/29/07] In his first campaign for president, Gov. Romney championed amending the US Constitution to ban same-sex marriage. Today, Romney remains opposed to same-sex civil unions. [Chicago Tribune, 10/21/07] In 2012 Gov. Romney refused to stand up for openly gay campaign spokesman Richard Grenell, and allowed him to be hounded out by social conservatives in the Republican party who described his resignation as a huge win. [Washington Post, 5/1/12]. Log Cabin Republicans called the resignation unfortunate. Now, Romney has chosen Paul Ryan as his running mate. Ryan supports a Constitutional ban on same sex marriage [Roll Call 378, S 88, 07/18/2006], voted against the repeal of Dont Ask, Dont Tell, [New York Times, 12/18/10], and opposes expanding federal hate crime law to protect our community [Roll Call 223, H 1913, 04/29/2009].

Looking back, who among us believes that Mitt Romney kept the promise he made to the Log Cabin Republicans in 1994? In 2004, amid President Bushs full-throated support for a federal marriage amendment and dismal record on LGBT equality overall, the Log Cabin Republicans wisely withheld their endorsement. We believe Mitt Romneys record shows there is little daylight between him and George W. Bush when it comes to our rights indeed, Mitt may actually be worse, pledging to undo so much of the progress our community has made-Republicans, Democrats and independents alike. As a community, we cannot afford to take that risk. For these reasons, and on behalf of the millions of families that constitute our community, we respectfully ask that the Log Cabin Republicans withhold their endorsement of Mitt Romney for the 2012 presidential election. Thank you for your consideration in this matter,

David Brock Chairman American Bridge 21st Century

Rick Jacobs Chairman and Founder Courage Campaign Super PAC