Presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney has reaffirmed his staunch opposition to gay marriage just a few days after President Barack Obama's historic statement in support of it.
Speaking on Saturday as a guest at a graduation ceremony at Liberty University, America's largest college for evangelical Christians, Romney used the occasion to reiterate his belief that marriage could only exist between a man and a woman.
"Marriage is a relationship between one man and one woman," Romney said to a large cheer from the crowd of students, parents and faculty at the Virginia-based college.
The private university, which was founded by leading conservative evangelical Jerry Falwell, is a powerful institution among America's social conservatives and fundamentalist Christians.
Its campus includes a Centre for Creation Studies, and a museum that displays dinosaur fossils staff have claimed are just a few thousand years old.
Romney's hardline stance comes in the wake of Obama's televised announcement of his support for same-sex marriage, which was hailed by civil rights activists as a milestone on the road to equality.
But it also comes after voters in North Carolina decided to ban gay marriage in their state, and after comments by Romney's former GOP rival Rick Santorum that Romney should embrace opposition to gay marriage as a key part of his campaign.
Santorum, who mounted the strongest challenge to Romney in the 2012 nomination race, called the stance "a potent weapon" to be used in the election.
"This is a very potent weapon, if you will, for Governor Romney – if he's willing to step up and take advantage of a president who is very much out of touch with the values of America," Santorum told an Arkansas TV station.
In his Liberty speech, Romney paid tribute to the former Pennsylvania Senator – who has now endorsed him in the race – and cribbed one of Santorum's campaign lines.
Romney thanked Santorum for telling him that studies had showed stable marriages and families often led to better economic prospects for people.
"Culture makes all the difference," he said.
Though the speech had been billed as a non-political event, Romney also made a few veiled sideswipes at Obama, especially when reflecting on the student crowd's last four years of academic work.
"Let's say that not everybody has achieved as much in these four years as you have. But that's a theme for another day," he said.
He also added: "If we take the right course, I am convinced we are going to see a resurgence in the American economy that will surprise the world."
However, Romney's speech also comes after it emerged that Jan van Lohuizen, the pollster for President George Bush in his successful 2004 re-election bid, has circulated a memo warning the Republican party that support for gay marriage is growing across America's electoral landscape.
The memo reported that up to 2009 support for the issue grew at an average of about one percent a year but that that rate had increased to 5% a year since 2010.
"While more Democrats support gay marriage than Republicans, support levels among Republicans are increasing over time.
"The same is true of age: younger people support same sex marriage more often than older people, but the trends show that all age groups are rethinking their position," van Lohuizen wrote. Last week a Gallup poll showed that a majority of Americans – 51% – supported Obama's statement on gay marriage.
Though opposing it is still popular with social conservatives, and could be a wedge issue in some key swing states in 2012, there is also evidence that Romney's anti-gay marriage stance is reinforcing a negative personal image for many Americans.
Another Gallup poll last week showed Obama well ahead of Romney on "likeability" – 60% to 31% – with almost a third of Republicans agreeing that the president was more likeable than their own candidate.
That negative trend was likely reinforced last week after allegations that Romney bullied gay classmates at prep school, including forcibly cutting off one student's hair.
Van Lohuizen's memo, which has been circulated widely in senior Republican circles, argued forcefully for bringing gay equality into the party's ideological fold.
It went on to say that gay marriage and civil unions needed to be supported with traditional conservative stances on freedom of expression and promoting family values of commitment and stability and also a scepticism about the role of government in people's private lives.
"As people who promote personal responsibility, family values, commitment and stability, and emphasize freedom and limited government we have to recognise that freedom means freedom for everyone.
"This includes the freedom to decide how you live and to enter into relationships of your choosing, the freedom to live without excessive interference of the regulatory force of government," Van Lohuizen concluded.
