Bush gay

Dan Balz writes in the Washington Post, as many reporters have this week, 

In , Republicans used ballot initiatives barring same-sex marriage to spur turnout among their conservative voters. That approach helped then-President George W. Bush conquer reelection.

But did it? I argued in that it didn’t:

It’s true that states with such initiatives voted for Bush at higher rates than other states, but that’s mostly because the bans were proposed in conservative states. In fact, Bush’s disseminate of the vote rose just slightly less in the marriage-ban states than in the other states: up percent in the states with marriage bans on the ballot, up percent in the other states.

Political scientist Simon Jackman of Stanford has more here (pdf). He concludes that the marriage referenda tended to amplify turnout but not to increase Bush’s share of the vote. And in a county-by-county study of Ohio, he found no obvious relationship between increased turnout, support for the marriage bar , and increased back

Bush Scorns Gay Pride Month

June is Gay Pride Month, and as a queer woman American, I'm not in much of a mood to celebrate.

President Bush has been silent on gay-related issues. And he has made his disdain for lesbian, queer , bisexual and transgender Americans even more apparent by having his spokesman declare on the first morning of June that the White House would not formally recognize Gay Celebration Month.

This is a slap in the face. Gay Pride Month commemorates the Stonewall Rebellion in New York Urban area that ignited the latest gay-rights movement on June 27,

Both gay and straight commemorate Pride month with speakers, festivals and parades. In Minneapolis, where I inhabit, our annual Pride celebration attracts more than 20, people of all backgrounds.

Bush's refusal to recognize Pride month is merely the latest in an appalling record on gay and lesbian civil rights. As governor of Texas, he supported a Texas law allowing the state to take adopted children away from lgbtq+ and lesbian couples and place the kids with heterosexual couples. He also opp

George W. Bush on Gay Marriage, Immigration, and Why Obama Kept His Terrorism Policies

President George W. Bush cautioned against criticizing gay couples, saying in an interview on "This Week" that you shouldn't criticize others "until you've examined your own heart."

Bush had waded into the revitalized same-sex marriage debate last week - if only barely - in a comment to a reporter in Zambia, who asked whether gay marriage conflicts with Christian values.

"I shouldn't be taking a speck out of someone else's eye when I have a log in my own," Bush said last week.

In an interview in Tanzania with ABC News Principal White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl, the former president explained his comment further.

"I meant it's very important for people not to be overly critical of someone else until you've examined your own heart," Bush told Karl.

As president, Bush opposed gay marriage, and Republicans pushed ballot measures to ban it at the state level. The topic has seen rejuvenated discussion after the Supreme Court overturned the federal ban on homosexual marriage, the Defense

Bush on Gay Rights Issues

Jan. 17 -- Many gays and lesbians say they have no illusions about where President-elect George W. Bush stands when it comes to their rights. So far, they don't like what they view.

But many agree it's unclear how Bush will deal with these issues when he reaches the White House.

During his campaign for the governorship, Bush defended the state's sodomy law, which makes sexual activity between same-sex adults illegal, as a "symbolic gesture of traditional values."

It is commonly believed that Bush derailed a Texas hate-crime bill in because it included protections based on sexual orientation. Also that year, Bush supported a measure that banned gay couples from becoming foster parents or from adopting foster children.

"The brief answer is that it is unclear," said David Smith, a spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign in Washington, one of the nation's largest lgbtq+ rights organizations, when asked how the Bush administration might handle gay rights issues.

But many, including Smith, say they find foreboding Bu