Only about a month after he joined the campaign and amid tons of backlash, Richard Grenell, the openly gay man recently hired to serve as Mitt Romney’s campaign spokesperson on foreign policy, resigned from the position.

Conservatives completely destroyed Romney for the decision, claiming that Grenell would jump ship if President Obama ever announced his support for marriage equality, accusing Romney of giving in to the “homosexual lobby,” and making other outrageous claims. What’s funny is that Grenell was certainly not the first gay person ever to work for Romney, but in this particular election season it became a hot topic.

“My ability to speak clearly and forcefully on the issues has been greatly diminished by the hyper-partisan discussion of personal issues that sometimes comes from a presidential campaign,” Grenell said in a statement issued today to The Washington Post. “I want to thank Governor Romney for his belief in me and my abilities and his clear message to me that being openly gay was a non-issue for him and his team.”

That was certainly short-lived. It’s really troubling that our country is still so sharply divided that things like this have to happen.

In light of assorted recent events about homophobia in scout troops, GLAAD has unearthed a surprising quote from Mitt Romney’s earlier days. More.

These are not good times for anyone affiliated with the National Organization for Marriage, and not surprisingly, that includes Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Documents circulated by the Human Rights Campaign show that Romney donated $10,000 to NOM a few years ago, a contribution that may well have made a huge impact when NOM was fighting for Prop 8. A while back Romney also signed a pledge from NOM promising to fight marriage equality in this country.

More info on the current NOM controversy:

As a donor and presumably a member of NOM, since a portion of all donations automatically goes toward membership dues, it’s possible that the Romney campaign saw the “confidential” memo in which NOM outlines its strategy to “drive a wedge between gays and blacks — two key Democratic constituencies.”

HRC and others are calling on Romney to denounce NOM. But as a 2012 candidate he’s signed a pledge from the group that commits him to its ideals, including a ban on marriage equality via an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, an effort to repeal marriage equality in Washington, D.C., and the formation of a presidential commission to investigate NOM’s opponents.

Crazy stuff. I will never stop saying it: do your research before going to vote in November.

File under “really important things Buzzfeed found about Mitt Romney.” This is from 2002. More. 

A campaign adviser to Mitt Romney and Scott Brown mocked the It Gets Better campaign through a fake Twitter handle mocking Democrat Alan Khazei. This is just annoying. More.

Mitt Romney has joined Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum in signing a pledge basically promising never to support LGBT rights again. 

Sponsored by the extremely antigay National Organization for Marriage, the pledge says candidates who sign will support a U.S. constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, nominate judges who believe the Constitution doesn’t guarantee same-sex marriage, put gay marriage up to a vote in D.C. where it’s already legal, investigate “harassment” of traditional marriage supporters and defend DOMA in court. 

The icing on the poisonous conservative cake:

In the most cryptic of the promises, the candidates for the GOP nomination say that if they are elected, they will create a “presidential commission on religious liberty.” The commission would “investigate and document reports of Americans who have been harassed or threatened” for supporting gay marriage bans in speech or in donations. The commission might even “propose new protections” for those who are against same-sex marriage. 

At this point, there’s no leading contender for the GOP nomination who’s in any way supportive of LGBT rights. Not long ago, Romney publicly called a similar, more controversial pledge from the Iowa Family Leader “undignified and inappropriate” and refused to sign it, though Bachmann and Santorum signed quickly (surprised?). Why sign this one? Why vow to take away rights?

I’m outraged. I actually trusted him. Many of my followers are LGBT/allied and also Republicans - I urge you to reconsider your loyalties for the 2012 election. This is dangerous.