Intern insists Romney campaign approved Gay Pride fliers

An intern from Mitt Romney's 2002 gubernatorial campaign says that his campaign did authorize and pay for the distribution of a Gay Pride Week flier, despite adamant denials from Romney's current staff that the handout was authorized.

The flier, printed on pink paper, wishes recipients "a great Pride weekend," and could prove the latest ammunition for Romney's GOP foes seeking to paint the former governor as not sufficiently conservative.

"On pride weekend, the campaign sent a contingent of about a half-dozen of us to the post-parade festival on Boston Common to hand out those fliers," Josh Barro, a former Romney intern who now works for a conservative think tank, told Buzzfeed. "The thing was organized by a full-time staffer."

This despite adamant denials from Eric Fehrnstrom, Romney's chief spokesman, that the campaign ever approved the fliers.

"I don't know where those pink fliers came from. I was the communications director on the 2002 campaign. I don't know who distributed them ... I never saw them, and I was the communications director," Fehrnstrom told the Huffington Post after the Sunday morning New Hampshire debate. "I never saw them and I never approved them. I'm not quite sure where they came from."

In addition to wishing recipients a "great Pride weekend," the handout states that "all citizens deserve equal rights, regardless of their sexual preference" and says that it was paid for by the Romney for Governor Committee and the Kerry Murphy Healey Committee. Healey was Romney's running mate in the 2002 elections.

Romney was pressed on the issue of gay rights during Sunday's presidential debate in New Hampshire. He said as governor, he consistently opposed gay marriage, but did not consider sexuality when making appointments.

"But if people are looking for someone who will discriminate against gays ... or say they don't have full rights in this country, they won't find that from me," Romney said.

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