Gee Bh's dghter, Barbara, speaks out support of gay marriage

Contents:

• BH’S DGHTER, A BREAK, ENDORS GAY MARRIAGE
• EX-PRINT BH'S DGHTER SUPPORTS GAY MARRIAGE
• BH DGHTER BARBARA COM OUT FOR GAY MARRIAGE
• GEE W. BH’S DGHTER BARBARA ENDORS GAY MARRIAGE
• GEE BH'S DGHTER, BARBARA, SPEAKS OUT SUPPORT OF GAY MARRIAGE
• BARBARA BH, DGHTER OF EX-PRINT GEE W. BH, SUPPORTS GAY MARRIAGE
• BARBARA BH, DGHTER OF PRINT GEE W. BH, ENDORS GAY MARRIAGE
• GEE W. BH'S FOTTEN GAY-RIGHTS HISTORY
• CHENEY AT ODDS WH BH ON GAY MARRIAGE

BH’S DGHTER, A BREAK, ENDORS GAY MARRIAGE

Bh, will endorse same-sex marriage on Tuday, publicly breakg ranks wh a father who, as print, phed for a nstutnal amendment banng such Bh, 29, has taped a vio llg on New York to legalize gay marriage.

Gay rights advot have been quick to seize on the generatnal spl as evince that the acceptance of same-sex marriage is bld to party affiliatn and fay valu. But for years, those close to her say, she has surround herself wh gay iends — at Yale, where she was an unrgraduate, and New York Cy, where she worked the sign world.

EX-PRINT BH'S DGHTER SUPPORTS GAY MARRIAGE

Bh habed was filled wh openly gay stunts and unbothered by qutns about sexualy. The Human Rights Campaign, a natnal gay rights group that ma the vio, plans to show Saturday at an annual gala New York Cy. A versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn A, Page 14 of the New York edn wh the headle: Dghter Of Bh Endors Gay Marriage.

Bh's dghter Barbara has announced her support for gay marriage, breakg wh her father on a key social issue but jog her mother and other proment Republins who back same-sex Human Rights Campaign, a natnal gay rights anizatn, released a vio Tuday featurg the 29-year old Bh, a New York rint who ns Global Health Corps, a nonprof public health anizatn. A bill legalizg gay marriage passed the New York state Assembly 2009 but was feated the state Senate that year.

Barbara Bh's advocy for gay marriage is a sharp parture om her father's posn on the former print was an opponent of same-sex marriage and 2004 announced his support for a proposed nstutnal amendment to outlaw . But his wife, former first lady Lra Bh, has said she supports gay marriage as do former Vice Print Dick Cheney, whose dghter Mary is gay.

BH DGHTER BARBARA COM OUT FOR GAY MARRIAGE

Advot say they approached Bh to appear the vio after she attend a fundraiser for the Amerin Foundatn for Equal Rights, an anizatn created to challenge California's Proposn 8, a 2008 ballot iative that stck down gay marriage that state. Barbara Bh's tw sister, Jenna Bh Hager, has not dited her posn on gay marriage.

"Barbara Bh has close ti to the gay muny through her work the sign world, The New York Tim reports:Barbara Bh, who started a nonprof group foced on global health, rarely speaks out on Amerin polil issu, makg her foray to the same-sex marriage bate so strikg. But for years, those close to her say, she has surround herself wh gay iends -- at Yale, where she was an unrgraduate, and New York Cy, where she worked the sign world.

GEE W. BH’S DGHTER BARBARA ENDORS GAY MARRIAGE

"Wh her statement, Barbara Bh jos high-profile polil dghter Meghan McCa as a voice agast the sort of gay marriage bans advoted Print Bh and Sen. ) so dog, she is exprsg the valu of her generatn, HRC noted; 58 percent of Amerins 18-29 support gay marriage, acrdg to a 2010 survey by the Pew Fom on Relign and Public Life. Barbara Bh typilly keeps a relatively low polil profile — but her advocy around gay rights may have been fomented through her iendships wh several gay stunts while at Yale.

ArticlBarbara Bh films a spot for the Human Rights Campaign supportg gay Clendaniel02. Bh, has ma a vio for the Human Rights Campaign supportg gay marriage New York. Bh's wife, Lra, has already gone on rerd as disagreeg wh her hband's posn on gay rights, and now his dghter, who was "loved by the gay muny at Yale, " is gettg on the actn.

He was gay and workg for a Republin and nvced was possible to be both at the same time. 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.

GEE BH'S DGHTER, BARBARA, SPEAKS OUT SUPPORT OF GAY MARRIAGE

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. And bis, opposg gay marriage jt “wasn’t a centerpiece of the mpaign to date, ” Leve relled when we talked recently.

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.

“I, of urse—jt by the law of statistics—knew that there were other gay people the Whe Hoe, ” he says. 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. It was only much later that Evertz learned Hernanz, who had been wh Bh sce servg as his driver and personal ai the early 1990s, was gay.

BARBARA BH, DGHTER OF EX-PRINT GEE W. BH, SUPPORTS GAY MARRIAGE

The hug had been a quiet statement of support om a member of the Whe Hoe’s gay unrground. ” says one former senr official the Bh Whe Hoe whose office clud at least three gay staffers. 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.

BARBARA BH, DGHTER OF PRINT GEE W. BH, ENDORS GAY MARRIAGE

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. 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.

GEE W. BH'S FOTTEN GAY-RIGHTS HISTORY

“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.

CHENEY AT ODDS WH BH ON GAY MARRIAGE

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. “He said, ‘I’m not gog to do that, ’” says Evertz, who rells Bh addg: “I don’t re if you’re gay.