It's 9:15 a.m. and Republican gubernatorial nominee Mitt Romney is in good spirits. He's just wrapped up a meeting with the Massachusetts Log Cabin Republicans at Mario's restaurant in Boston, where he won his first endorsement from a gay organization.

"We had a very good meeting today," Romney said in an interview with Bay Windows immediately after the gathering.

"I was very pleased to hear that the Log Cabin Republican club has endorsed my candidacy and I came away with some contributions today, so that's a good day."

The endorsement will likely come as no surprise to gay political observers. The state LCR worked with Romney's unsuccessful campaign to unseat U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy in 1994. Romney won the LCR endorsement primarily based on his support for the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), a pro-gay piece of legislation that at the time had little Republican support. Soon after Romney entered the race earlier this year, LCR President Chris Ferguson told Bay Windows the group would likely endorse Romney for governor.

According to Mark Goshko, a former LCR president, the group's 15-member board of governors, the body that votes to endorse candidates, made the unanimous decision after meeting with the Romney campaign and holding extensive discussions.

The question gay voters may be asking is why.

To be sure, from a gay standpoint, Romney's campaign got off on the wrong foot when he was perceived as having edged gay-friendly Gov. Jane Swift out of the race. Her handpicked gay running mate, Patrick Guerriero, bowed out soon after, when Romney refused to support his candidacy. At the same time, Romney's wife and son signed a petition in support of the anti-gay "Protection of Marriage" ballot initiative. His campaign responded that they signed the petition "without reading the fine print." Though Romney hadn't signed the petition-in fact, he immediately came out against the initiative-seeds of mistrust were planted.

Additionally, the 45-year-old Belmont resident recently weathered criticism for contributing $1 million dollars to his alma mater-Brigham Young University, an institution that expels students for being gay. And he angered gay activists when he chalked up his opposition to gay marriage and civil unions to being "old fashioned" in a recent debate. Activists also complain that he's been largely absent from the gay community on the campaign trail.

Romney understands gays and lesbians aren't rushing to his camp. Asked how he feels about the level of support he's received from the gay community, he responded, "It's hard for me to measure exactly what that might be in that I know that Republicans tend to have a smaller showing among the gay and lesbian community. The Log Cabin Club is not as large as its Democratic counterparts, but I'm appreciative of the support I have from those who lean towards an independent voice."

But throughout his campaign, Romney has articulated consistent positions on gay rights that his supporters say are worthy of a second look.

"I think he's staked out some ground on a number of issues that by any sort of general standard puts him in a pretty progressive light and it shows that he's thought about it, he's thought about details, he's answering things in a thoughtful way and in a way that he's committed to act," says Goshko.

One of those areas is his support for a set of legal protections for same-sex couples Romney calls domestic-partnership benefits and he's ready to joust with House Speaker Tom Finneran, long a foe of pro-gay legislation, in order to implement them.

"Basically I see the provision of basic civil rights and domestic partnership benefits [as] a campaign against Tom Finneran. I see Tom Finneran and the Democratic leadership as having opposed the application of domestic partnership benefits to gay and lesbian couples and I will support and endorse efforts to provide those domestic partnership benefits to gay and lesbian couples," says Romney.

"The list of those things which I would support is long and is one which I will work together with Mark Goshko and members of the gay and lesbian community, with experts in a wide range of fields to actually address on an item-by-item basis," he adds. Topping that list, for instance, are hospital visitation rights and the right of a surviving domestic partner to assume custody of a deceased partner's biological or adopted child.

While he has shied away from taking a stronger stance on the issue of legal protections for same-sex couples, for instance civil unions, Romney supporters are comfortable with his positions.

"If you ask him the details of what he supports, he articulates civil-union-like benefits," says Guerriero, who has informally consulted with Romney on gay issues over the course of his campaign. "If you go down his list it's pretty much a check-off of the real hot-button concerns for gays and lesbians. I do believe that, and as you know I'm a supporter of gay marriage."

Guerriero firmly supports Romney's candidacy, but concedes Romney didn't help himself with his negative response on whether he supported gay marriages or civil unions during a debate earlier this month.

"[C]all me old fashioned but I don't support gay marriage nor do I support civil union," Romney said. "...if a civil union is a Vermont-style civil union, with all of the associated benefits of marriage, then it's the same thing for me for all intents and purposes and I draw the line there...I do not favor marriage between gays. I think marriage should be preserved for a husband and a wife of different genders."

"It was a very poor answer," Guerriero observes. "It did not reflect the positions that I know Mitt Romney has taken. ...Had it been an ideal situation he would have articulated what he stood for regarding civil rights for gays rather than what he wasn't for, which is gay marriage," says Guerriero, who discussed the statement with Romney after the debate.

LCR hopes to work with Romney on the issue. "I think we'd like to move him along into broader support in the civil unions/marriage area over time," Goshko says. "I don't think he particularly falls short by saying 'I'm hell-bent against this' or 'That's as far as I'm going on that.' I think what we've seen is an open mindedness and so I think what's important is engaging in a continuing dialogue."

Romney also supports extending health insurance benefits to the domestic partners of state employees-legislation that has passed the Senate three times only to die in the House-but only after fixing the state budget. "I would not do that next year," he says, "because I would not be able to explain appropriately why we had cut 50,000 of the poor off of our health system but then we added additional state workers to our health program."

When pressed on whether he'd sign a domestic partnership bill should it pass next year, Romney says, "I haven't seen the specific bill but the answer is yes, I do support domestic-partnership rights being provided to non-traditional couples and I would support that were it brought forward. And contrary to Speaker Finneran and Shannon O'Brien, who he supports... I will advance the domestic-partnership rights as outlined."

Criticism of Romney's support for gay rights has been plentiful but his supporters say some of it, particularly as it relates to his Mormon beliefs, is just plain wrong. "The fact that the Globe would give a page one story to the whole B.Y.U. thing was just preposterous," Goshko says, referencing the story about Romney's donation to the university despite its anti-gay enrollment policy. Goshko notes that a large number of the local political establishment are alumni or supporters of Boston College, a Catholic institution recently named one of the least gay-friendly colleges in the country, yet none of them have been criticized for not taking a public stand against the school. "Total double standard there," he says.

Though his positions on gay rights may not be as strong as those of his Democratic challenger, Romney, Goshko says, is committed to following through on them. Romney also states that as governor he's prepared to sit down with legislators and talk about gay issues.

"What I believe is that as the token Republican in state government, which I will be, but with some powers and a great deal of visibility and with a bully pulpit, my job in order to get anything passed or to make any change on Beacon Hill will be to create two sources of power, if you will," says Romney.

"So that will be an area where I will be able to advance those issues that I think I can create broad public support for and specifically in the area of visitation rights and survivorship rights, I'll call them, ...those kinds of things I think I can generate a great deal of public support for and therefore create pressure for legislators that otherwise might not think in those terms.

"Number two," he continues, "you try and have that same kind of effect on individual legislators-the second branch is going after neutral legislators and trying to convince them. Typically my impression is that some of that is convincing and some of that is trading," he laughs.

"Which is, I'll come to your fundraiser or I'll help you with this project you're working on and I'll take a look at this bill but I want you to take a look at this one. And I will be someone who will be advocating basic civil rights for all of our citizens. And that will be something which will be clear to legislators as well as to the public."