Bh Rtat Posn on Gay Marriage : NPR

Contents:

• GEE W. BH'S FOTTEN GAY-RIGHTS HISTORY
• GEE W. BH ON GAY MARRIAGE, IMMIGRATN, AND WHY OBAMA KEPT HIS TERRORISM POLICI
• GEE H.W. BH: I HAVE 'MELLOWED' ON GAY MARRIAGE
• PRINT BH ENDORS AMENDMENT BANNG GAY MARRIAGE
• BH ON GAY RIGHTS ISSU
• GAYS AND LBIANS OWE THANKS TO PRINT GEE W. BH AND JTICE SLIA
• BH RTAT POSN ON GAY MARRIAGE
• BH’S DGHTER, A BREAK, ENDORS GAY MARRIAGE

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. 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.

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.

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

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.

“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.

GEE H.W. BH: I HAVE 'MELLOWED' 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.

“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.

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.

PRINT BH ENDORS AMENDMENT BANNG GAY MARRIAGE

” 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. Lghg, Evertz says he imaged the print’s receptnist mt have been gog down the list of Kennedy Center shows, g to that night and gog, “Gay Men’s Chos of Washgton?

BH ON GAY RIGHTS ISSU

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. So a flier was drafted that clud an image of one man kneelg to propose to another and verbiage to the effect that if nservative voters didn’t turn out, gay marriage would be “allowed” while the Bible would be “banned. The nventnal wisdom among Bh’s crics, and even some supporters, is that the print phed the nstutnal amendment to ban gay marriage ls om eply held prciple than as part of Karl Rove’s strategy to rile up the Republin base at tim of polil weakns: Early the 2004 reelectn mpaign, when Bh was weighed down by the Iraq telligence disaster, and then June 2006, when ntrol of Congrs was slippg away the midterm electns.

Still, Rove sists, “Neher Bh nor I regret his stand on gay marriage, ” which he argu was an effort to block the “social revolutnary act” of overturng the time-honored fn of marriage.

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

Which is the pot ma by Charl Francis, a public affairs executive om Texas who anized the At 12 meetg wh Bh but left the GOP over gay rights a uple of years ago. “History needs to unrstand how a print wh his heart and his fay and iends and many gay people his admistratn—how they uld have so totally disavowed gay Ameri, ” Francis says.

BH RTAT POSN ON GAY MARRIAGE

But McConnell says Bh’s posn on gay marriage was a reasonable batn of his personal ncept of “moraly” and the central GOP ncept of owng on an activist judiciary.

A few days after the 2012 printial mpaign, durg which Barack Obama beme the first print to publicly support gay marriage and Mt Romney held firm to his party’s opposn to , I received an email om Chris Edwards, who had e out while workg the Bh Whe Hoe. Oh, which, acrdg to an analysis by the Pew Rearch Center, might have been the one state where a gay marriage ban on the ballot actually “played a pivotal role” Bh’s w. " 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. ''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.

BH’S DGHTER, A BREAK, ENDORS GAY MARRIAGE

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.