NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks to Urvashi Vaid, who led the Natnal Gay and Lbian Task Force om 1989 to 1992, about the legacy of Print Gee H.W. Bh handlg the AIDS crisis.
Contents:
- GEE H.W. BH: I HAVE 'MELLOWED' ON GAY MARRIAGE
- GEE H.W. BH ‘UNSUPPORTIVE’ ON GAY RIGHTS, HIV/AIDS
- GEE W. BH'S FOTTEN GAY-RIGHTS HISTORY
- BH ON GAY RIGHTS ISSU
- GEORGE BUSH: "I'M GAY"
- GEE H.W. BH OFFICIAL WNS AT GAY MARRIAGE
GEE H.W. BH: I HAVE 'MELLOWED' ON GAY MARRIAGE
What was like to be gay and Republin at a time of gay-bashg polics? * george hw bush gay *
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 H.W. BH ‘UNSUPPORTIVE’ ON GAY RIGHTS, HIV/AIDS
The 41st print isn't thought of as a gay ally, but he was light years ahead of Ronald Reagan or even Donald Tmp. * george hw bush gay *
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. 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'S FOTTEN GAY-RIGHTS HISTORY
* george hw bush gay *
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.
BH ON GAY RIGHTS ISSU
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. 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.
GEORGE BUSH: "I'M GAY"
” 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.
GEE H.W. BH OFFICIAL WNS AT GAY MARRIAGE
” 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.
” 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?
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.