This is Julie Goodridge. Goodridge sued the Massachusetts Department of Health in 2003 because her partner was denied the right to see her newborn daughter or her after a difficult and life-threatening birth. That case turned into the landmark
September 13, 2012

This is Julie Goodridge. Goodridge sued the Massachusetts Department of Health in 2003 because her partner was denied the right to see her newborn daughter or her after a difficult and life-threatening birth. That case turned into the landmark ruling that said gay couples do have the right to marry.

In this video, Goodridge tells us all what it was like to fight for those rights in a state where Mitt Romney was governor at the time. She said she begged him for a meeting and couldn't get one. When she did finally have an opportunity to speak with him, he had not read anything with regard to her case (or so she claimed). She described his answer to her question about what she should tell her daughter about why her parents couldn't be married as "cold." The answer was the equivalent of flipping her off. Via Boston.com:

“It was like talking to a robot. No expression, no feeling,” recalls David Wilson, one of the plaintiffs in the case who met with Romney that day. “People were sharing touching stories, stories where you’d expect recognition in the other person’s face that they at least hear what you’re saying — that there’s empathy. He didn’t even shake his head. He was completely blank.”

Occasionally Romney would say something.

“I didn’t know you had families,” remarked Romney to the group, according to Wilson.
The offhanded remark underscored that Romney, the governor of the first state prepared to grant same-sex marriage, hadn’t taken the time to look at what the landmark case was really about. By this point the plaintiff’s stories had been widely covered by national media — in particular, Julie Goodridge’s heartrending tale of how her then-partner, Hillary, was denied hospital visitation following the precarious birth of daughter Annie. It was the ignorance of these facts — and Romney’s inaccurate, insensitive answer to her parting question, that pushed Julie Goodridge to her breaking point.

“I looked him in the eye as we were leaving,” recalls Goodridge. “And I said, ‘Governor Romney, tell me — what would you suggest I say to my 8 year-old daughter about why her mommy and her ma can’t get married because you, the governor of her state, are going to block our marriage?’”

His response, according to Goodridge: “I don’t really care what you tell your adopted daughter. Why don’t you just tell her the same thing you’ve been telling her the last eight years.”

Romney couldn't even be bothered to know that Goodridge's daughter was not adopted. She was her natural daughter. In fact, it was Goodridge's childbirth experience that sparked the lawsuit. But he hadn't bothered to pay attention at all, yet was supporting a constitutional amendment banning her marriage.

If Goodridge's story was unique, it could possibly be dismissed as pure politics. But it's not. The words she uses to describe Mitt Romney -- cold, lacking any empathy, dead eyes -- are what we see every day. This is the same Mitt Romney who says students should get the best education they can afford, who profiteers from the 9-11 tragedy, who stores his money in Swiss and Cayman bank accounts while placing his hand over his heart and singing "America the Beautiful."

It's no stretch to imagine Julie Goodridge begging Willard to just try and see things from her vantage point, only to be rebuffed and told that she wasn't worth him even reading about her case.

On top of all the other reasons, imagine what it would be like to have someone like Romney as president. Shoot, just look at the states that are currently run by Republicans! Women? Bah! Let them do laundry! Gay people? Suffer, sinners. That would be what would happen. There would be no rights for anyone but wealthy white dudes.

Julie's story is only one of many, but all of them tell the same tale.

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