GEORGE BUSH: "I'M GAY"

What was like to be gay and Republin at a time of gay-bashg polics? * george w bush is gay *

Bh shocked his fay, iends and the natn by announcg today that he is gay.

GEE W. BH'S FOTTEN GAY-RIGHTS HISTORY

“Fellas, I woke up this morng and told Lra that I jt realized after all the years that I am gay. This startlg news me on heels of the announcement by Ken Mehlman, who head the Republin Natnal Commtee between 2005 and 2007, that HE was gay. Gay groups across the untry had mixed feelgs about the news.

BH ON GAY RIGHTS ISSU

Bh put on some leather chaps and head for a lol gay bar, Happy Tails, and orred a “sprzer.

I’m not sure he knows exactly what “gay” means. Bh utned agast cricizg gay upl, sayg an terview on "This Week" that you shouldn't cricize others "until you've examed your own heart. " 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.

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

"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. 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.

BH BACKS BAN CONSTUTN ON 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. 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.

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