With the news that former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. is running for president, the news media has been highlighting his gay-friendly views, which set him apart from most Republican candidates. Huntsman supports civil unions for same-sex couples and prohibiting employment discrimination based on a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

But a consultant for the Huntsman campaign inaccurately stated this week that this support had translated into legalizing civil unions in Utah. In fact, Huntsman, during his 2004 campaign, endorsed a voter-approved amendment to the Utah Constitution that banned both same-sex marriage and civil unions. That amendment, known as Amendment 3, is still in place.

Charles T. Moran, a vice chair for the California Log Cabin Republicans and Huntsman campaign consultant, made the civil-unions claim in an e-mail to potential LGBT donors. The complete e-mail has been posted online by Politico.

Here’s the skinny on Huntsman’s record on LGBT rights.

In 2009, in response to questions from The Salt Lake Tribune, Huntsman endorsed Equality Utah’s Common Ground Initiative, a collection of bills that quickly fizzled in the conservative Utah Legislature. The most surprising aspect of his endorsement was that one of the bills sought to repeal the portion of Amendment 3 that prohibits civil unions. (It would not have actually created civil unions.)

“He’s long supported many of the ideas that are presented within the Common Ground Initiative,” said Lisa Roskelley, Huntsman’s spokeswoman at the time. “He supports civil unions.”

Despite maintaining his opposition to gay marriage, Huntsman took some heat from social conservatives, including a protest outside his office and full-page ads in both daily Utah newspapers.

Still, Huntsman’s gubernatorial endorsement did not give momentum to any of the common ground bills. The civil-unions bill already had been dropped by its sponsor, who worried that it was controversial enough to sink the other measures in the initiative. The three remaining bills, which would have created a limited domestic-partner registry, a pathway to probate rights and anti-discrimination protections, died without getting a floor vote in the House or Senate.

Equality Utah also asked Huntsman to extend health insurance benefits to state employees’ domestic partners, but he insisted that would require legislative, not administrative, action.

Huntsman was honored by the LGBT community for his civil-unions stance — a risky one in Utah given that 70 percent of voters opposed civil unions in a 2009 Tribune poll. He received the 2009 Pete Suazo Political Action Award as part of the annual Utah Pride Festival.