Though Mitt Romney did not join his running mate Paul Ryan and other Congressional Republicans at this weekend’s Values Voters Summit, he did address the conference through a prerecorded video. In it, he personally thanked Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council for their “leadership” and for bringing people together to discuss “vital issues.” He went on to reiterate his anti-choice and anti-gay positions, borrowing a Rick Santorum talking point suggesting that liberal social policies contribute to poverty:

ROMNEY: We will uphold the sanctity of life, not abandon or ignore it. And we will defend marriage, not try to redefine it. We need a President who understands that we will not have a strong economy unless we have strong communities and strong families. This isn’t conjecture or some quaint belief, it’s evidenced by a Brookings Institution study that Rick Santorum brought to my attention some time ago. For those who graduate from high school, get a full-time job, and wait until they’re 21 until they marry and then have their first child, the probability that they will be poor is 2 percent, but if those things are absent, the probability of becoming poor is 76 percent. In short, culture matters, and as President, I’ll protect our culture and preserve the values of hard work, personal responsibility, family, and faith.

Watch his full address:

Unlike the America Romney imagines, same-sex families are a part of communities all across this country, and they would benefit from marriage just like other families.

During his presidential campaign during the Republican primaries, Santorum regularly made claims about poverty to defend his socially conservative positions. In January, he claimed that President Obama was de-emphasizing abstinence-only sex education because he “wants people to be in poverty,” despite the fact that such programs are ineffective at preventing teen pregnancy. Santorum also told audiences that kids are better off with a parent in jail than with same-sex parents, conflating the experience of abandoned mothers to the “fatherless” families of lesbian couples.

If Romney wants to cite data when he speaks on social issues — particularly as his campaign prepares to emphasize them more — he should probably consider using information that actually informs his positions, rather than relying on the conjecture of his party’s extremists like Santorum.

Values Voters Summit Confirmed and Invited Speakers

Several prominent social justice groups, including the Southern Poverty Law Center, GLAAD, Human Rights Campaign, and National Council of La Raza, have sent a letter discouraging public officials from participating in the Family Research Council’s Values Voters Summit this weekend. Among the confirmed speakers are vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan (R-WI), House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), and Ann Romney, among many other prominent Republican lawmakers and conservative voices.

The letter highlights FRC’s anti-gay smears, as well as that of affiliate American Family Association, both groups the Southern Poverty Law Center has deemed “hate groups:

The FRC is far outside of the mainstream. It has engaged in repeated, groundless demonization — portraying LGBT people as sick, vile, incestuous, violent, perverted, and a danger to the nation. One of its officials has gone so far as to say homosexuality should be criminalized. [...]

We urge you to decline the FRC’s invitation and not share the stage with and lend your credibility to an organization that spreads demonizing falsehoods about other people.

The letter may not deter any of these speakers, but it does hold them accountable for their affiliation. The speakers’ rhetoric will likely cater to the social conservative base, but their mere presence at the conference will speak volumes to the general public.

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum took to the stage today at the Values Voters Summit and criticized a recent Pentagon memorandum allowing chaplains to perform same-sex marriages. Santorum argued that the ruling “instructed” chaplains to “break the law”:

SANTORUM: The Defense of Marriage Act. The President of the United States won’t even defend the law in court. An abomination! And worse than that, just recently, he has instructed his military chaplains to marry people in direct contravention — marry gays and lesbians — in direct contravention to the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage in federal law as between a man and a woman. So not only did the President not defend the law, he has now instructed people in the military to break the law.

Watch it:

This rhetoric directly contradicts what the memo to military chaplains actually said:

A military chaplain may participate in or officiate any private ceremony, whether on or off a military installation, provided that the ceremony is not prohibited by applicable state and local law. Further, a chaplain is not required to participate in or officiate a private ceremony if doing so would be in variance with the tenets of his or her religion or personal beliefs. Finally, a military chaplain’s participation in a private ceremony does not constitute an endorsement of the ceremony by DoD.

Santorum joins the chorus of conservative groups who apparently believe that military chaplains should be prohibited from performing same-sex marriages. They are arguing that “religious liberty” should only apply to chaplains who share their beliefs, offering no regard whatsoever for the many religious leaders who believe in marriage equality. The priority, as always, is demonizing and ostracizing same-sex couples.