Gays and lbians owe thanks to Print Gee W. Bh and Jtice Slia - The Washgton Post

Contents:

• GEE W. BH'S FOTTEN GAY-RIGHTS HISTORY
• WASHGTON, D.C.'S HIDN GAY HISTORY IS UNVERED 'SECRET CY'
• BH ON GAY RIGHTS ISSU
• GEE W. BH ON GAY MARRIAGE, IMMIGRATN, AND WHY OBAMA KEPT HIS TERRORISM POLICI
• GAYS AND LBIANS OWE THANKS TO PRINT GEE W. BH AND JTICE SLIA

GEE W. BH'S FOTTEN GAY-RIGHTS HISTORY

" Bh had wad to the revalized same-sex marriage bate last week -- if only barely -- a ment to a reporter Zambia, who asked whether gay marriage nflicts wh Christian valu. "I meant 's very important for people not to be overly cril of someone else until you've examed your own heart, " Bh told story went on to note that "As print, Bh opposed gay marriage, and Republins phed ballot measur to ban at the state level. Meanwhile his vice print, Dick Cheney, opposed the nstutnal amendment to ban gay marriage that was a popular ia among social nservativ at the time.

''As Republins seek to fd a new way forward the wake of the Supreme Court cisn strikg down DOMA, 's worth rellg that one equently discsed proposed path -- backg civil unns but not full marriage equaly -- would jt take the GOP back to where s succsful printial ndidate was , the more nservative ndidate who lost where Bh won, opposed both gay marriage and civil unns picture wh Bh was hardly one of straightforward support for gay unns, of urse. At the same time, he benefed om an aggrsive state-by-state mpaign to turn out evangelil voters opposed to givg gay unns the same standg as heterosexual on.

And tight rac, those voters -- who historilly have leaned heavily Republin -- may have tipped the now Bh, rponse to a journalist Zambia askg about whether gay marriage is agast Christian valu, said, "I shouldn't be takg a speck out of someone else's eye when I have a log my own. Like dozens of other gay lleagu the Bh Whe Hoe, many of them closeted, Leve had been sure that Bh himself was personally tolerant even if the GOP was not—and unfortable wh gay-bashg as a way to w electns.

WASHGTON, D.C.'S HIDN GAY HISTORY IS UNVERED 'SECRET CY'

But this was also the print who had ma batg AIDS Ai a personal e (later, at Leve’s urgg, he would even rate the Whe Hoe North Porti wh a giant red ribbon to mark World AIDS Day), who had met wh prevly ostracized gay Republin lears and whose hard-le nservative vice print had an openly gay dghter. A few months later, one of his gay iends who had also worked the Whe Hoe sat down ont of Facebook and unted the Bh Whe Hoe staffers he knew to be gay.

Alberto Gonzal, the former Bh Whe Hoe unsel and attorney general, for example, says he never knew dozens of gays had served on the Whe Hoe staff.

BH ON GAY RIGHTS ISSU

Evertz says Bh’s polil gu, Karl Rove, for a time would only give him clearance for public appearanc if he promised not to be billed as the first openly gay appotee a Republin admistratn. In recent months, I’ve reported extensively on life the closet of the Bh Whe Hoe, and a number of his former ais are quoted on the rerd this story for the first time about their experienc as gay Republins an admistratn that was perhaps the last of the era when stutnalized discrimatn agast gays and lbians was still legal, if creasgly owned upon.

At the time, seemed to be great polics for Bh: Comg out agast gay marriage, as Rove bragged his 2010 book, Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative the Fight, “benefed my ndidate” and “helped reelect him” 2004. But sce a Supreme Court cisn last year, 19 stat and the District of Columbia have legalized gay marriage, jt the oute that Bh and his team fought to prevent, and a clear majory of Amerins—a rerd high of 55 percent this year—now tell pollsters they support this right. In retirement Texas, Bh himself has remaed largely silent about this polil sea change—even as his wife, Lra, exprsed support for same-sex marriage a televisn terview, his dghter Barbara taped a vio  support of legalizg gay marriage New York and even his father, the first Print Bh, served as a wns at a same-sex marriage.

For some of his gay ais, was a stggle to rencile the cency they ually saw up close wh the equent remrs, both large and small, that theirs was a party very publicly mted to the view that they were not entled to the same legal protectns as other Amerins. Mehlman me out publicly 2010 and renounced his past work agast gay marriage; he went on to help the group that sponsored one of last year’s gay rights s the Supreme Court.

GEE W. BH ON GAY MARRIAGE, IMMIGRATN, AND WHY OBAMA KEPT HIS TERRORISM POLICI

But for all his public regrets, there rema many gay Republins who rent Mehlman’s failure, as the hight-rankg gay person the Bh Whe Hoe, to speak out at the time he uld have ma a difference. “He was the only one the room wh the print and Karl [Rove]” when strategi for stokg anti-gay marriage sentiment were oked up, a former RNC staffer told me.

Other gay ais told me of siar nflicts between the duty they felt they had to serve the print and their own feelgs of alienatn and betrayal. Bh started out as perhaps the most gay-iendly Republin print ever, an astonishg fact when you nsir that, his first year office, 71 percent of Republins thought homosexual behavr was morally wrong, acrdg to Gallup. ” The party’s platform that year might have talked about the sancty of tradnal marriage as a foundatn of Amerin mocracy, but this was nohels a print who, a few months before nailg down his party’s nomatn 2000, met At wh a dozen gay Republin lears, proclaimg afterward, “I am a better person for the meetg.

And even when his own reelectn was on the le four years later, he went out of his way to endorse civil unns—though he omted the fact when mpaigng agast gay marriage. “When you say, ‘I don’t re if you’re gay, ’ you’re basilly sayg, ‘I don’t re about somethg you are or the sence of who you are, ’” Bh was told, acrdg to Evertz. ” Both the Cheneys and the Bh were personally grac to members of their staff they knew to be gay and weled their partners generoly, acrdg to everyone I spoke wh.

GAYS AND LBIANS OWE THANKS TO PRINT GEE W. BH AND JTICE SLIA

Cheney even said publicly that “people should be ee to enter to any kd of relatnship they want to, ” argug that gay marriage should be left up to the stat.