Mitt Gets Worse: Julie Goodridge

Julie Goodridge was a lead plaintiff in Goodridge v. Dept of Public Health -- the lawsuit that brought same-sex marriage to Massachusetts. In this video, Goodridge shares her family's encounters with Gov. Mitt Romney, including a meeting with Romney, which Goodridge describes as "the most frustrating experience in the entire marriage case."

TRANSCRIPT
He said he was a friend of the gay community. He tried to block our marriages. There's no doubt in my mind that if Mitt was elected president, it's going to get a lot worse.

My name's Julie Goodrich, and I was half of the lead plaintiffs in the Massachusetts marriage case that brought same sex marriage to the commonwealth.

Mitt Romney did everything he could possibly do to block our ability to get married. But I was still really hopeful, you know, I, in some ways, I'm sort of the eternal optimist, and I went and I thought "You know what? If we can change the minds of all of these citizens in Massachusetts, to understand why we need to be married, why our family needs to be protected, you know, we can talk to the Governor."

So we went in to try to talk to him, and you know, it was truthfully the most frustrating experience that I had in the entire marriage case, and during that time, both Hillary and I had some pretty frustrating conversations. But this one took the cake.

When we met with Mitt, he didn't know who we were, he didn't have time to meet with us in
advance, he wouldn't schedule an appointment with us. He met with us only because he was being forced to by the media.

I looked him in the eye as we were leaving the meeting, and I said in exasperation, "Governor Romney, tell me, what would you suggest I say to my eight-year-old daughter about why her mommmy and her ma can't get married, because you, the governor of her state, is going to block our marriage."

And he looked at me and he said, kind of looked sort of over my
shoulder with this blank stare and said, "I don't really care what you tell your adopted daughter. Why don't you just tell her what you've been telling her for the last eight years?"

Our entire story was about the fact that when I gave birth to Annie, there were such severe complications that she was rushed off to neonatal intensive care. Hillary had to go with Annie, and then she couldn't get back into see me in recovery because she wasn't my next of kin. And then when she tried to see me and wasn't allowed she tried to get back in to see Annie, and she couldn't go into see Annie because she wasn't seen as her real mother.

This story was in every single, it was in the New York Times. It was in People Magazine. It was in every single public media outlet that their there was. It was on the front of Newsweek.

But the governor of the state of the first gay marriage case in this country didn't feel it was necessary to read about who we were, and why we wanted these rights?

I have never in my life stood before someone who had no capacity for empathy like Mitt Romney.

He didn't care about my daughter. He didn't care about what we should tell her.

All he cared about was his political future and blocking our rights to get married. Gay marriage is thorn in Romney's side. His goal is to make it go away. He doesn't believe that we need
rights, or want rights, or deserve rights.

I have never felt so strongly that this man cannot be the next President of the United States. Because let me tell you, it gets worse. And Mitt is going to make it worse.

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