social support

A Republican organization that advocates gay rights is targeting GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney in an ad campaign, seeking to undercut his support among social conservatives by highlighting his past statements in support of abortion rights. Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, has spent months courting social conservatives in key primary states, trying to erase doubts about his previous moderate stands.

Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani on Thursday dismissed his liberal social views, including his support for gay rights, as irrelevant to a presidential bid.

Minnesota state senator Paul Koering once fit neatly into the profile of socially conservative central Minnesota: abortion opponent, supporter of gun and property rights, outspoken supporter of veterans. But last year Koering was the only Republican in the senate to join Democrats in opposing an effort to force a floor vote on a constitutional same-sex marriage ban. And then he came out.

An August meeting between a gay Mormon support group and a social service agency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been indefinitely delayed. In a letter sent July 23, Fred C. Riley, the outgoing director of LDS Family Services, said the matter would best be handled by his successor, who hasn't been selected. LDS Family Services is an arm of the Salt Lake City-based denomination.

Mitt Romney's presidential campaign has been embraced in a most unlikely place: at Bob Jones University, the influential Christian college that teaches that his Mormon Church is a cult. In early-voting South Carolina, Romney has picked up support among the evangelicals and social conservatives who are a political force. Last week Romney won the endorsements of Bob Jones III and Robert Taylor, the founder's grandson and a top dean, respectively, at Bob Jones University.