Romney picked on gay kids in high school, according to him and a story in the Washington Post today. He says it was the 60s, and he didn't know the kids were gay. Like George Bush, and most republicans who want to hold high office, Romney says his wife changed him. Even though Romney's high school years are long past, it points to how he grew up -- in an intolerant and privileged environment.
Despite his "apology," based on this video, it's doubtful Romney has ever thought of the incidents since then, or learned anything from them. At the end of the story, we learn that Romney's target, a student named John Lauber, died of liver cancer.
Mitt says he doesn't even remember the incident. But you can be sure that what Romney did to Lauber, affected him.
We all know who Romney was in high school. We all know that guy.
The story begins like this:
Mitt Romney returned from a three-week spring break in 1965 to resume his studies as a high school senior at the prestigious Cranbrook School. Back on the handsome campus, studded with Tudor brick buildings and manicured fields, he spotted something he thought did not belong at a school where the boys wore ties and carried briefcases. John Lauber, a soft-spoken new student one year behind Romney, was perpetually teased for his nonconformity and presumed homosexuality. Now he was walking around the all-boys school with bleached-blond hair that draped over one eye, and Romney wasn’t having it.
“He can’t look like that. That’s wrong. Just look at him!” an incensed Romney told Matthew Friedemann, his close friend in the Stevens Hall dorm, according to Friedemann’s recollection. Mitt, the teenaged son of Michigan Gov. George Romney, kept complaining about Lauber’s look, Friedemann recalled. Read more at WaPo
