Jeb Bh, the 'gay-iendly Republin,' is still all about that base

Contents:

• GEE W. BH'S FOTTEN GAY-RIGHTS HISTORY
• NEW ‘GAY WATER’ LOOKS TO AVOID BUD LIGHT DISASTER
• THE HIDN GAY LIV FALLY BEG UNVERED
• JEB BH, THE 'GAY-IENDLY REPUBLIN,' IS STILL ALL ABOUT THAT BASE
• QUEER & GAY BERL: YOUR GUI FOR LGBTQ+ BERL

GEE W. BH'S FOTTEN GAY-RIGHTS HISTORY

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. 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.

NEW ‘GAY WATER’ LOOKS TO AVOID BUD LIGHT DISASTER

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.

THE HIDN GAY LIV FALLY BEG UNVERED

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.

JEB BH, THE 'GAY-IENDLY REPUBLIN,' IS STILL ALL ABOUT THAT BASE

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.

QUEER & GAY BERL: YOUR GUI FOR LGBTQ+ BERL

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.

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. ” Berkowz says that when he was “outed” by blogger Michael Rogers, whose mpaign to publicize what he saw as the hypocrisy of gay Republin operativ was chronicled the 2009 documentary Outrage, Bh staffers flocked to show their support. Although former staffers say they never believed Bh personally had anythg agast gay people, many still experienced episos of gnive dissonance, pecially when the print went to mpaign mo—and all of sudn started phg for the nstutnal amendment banng gay marriage.