Gay Today: People

George W. Bush:
Selling-out to the 'Gay Agenda'?

By Bill Berkowitz

Mr. Bush: A Champion of Gay Rights? Some in the religious right think so

Judging from the first major report to come out of the Culture and Family Institute, you'd think that President George W. Bush is a card-carrying member of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force. The truculent troika manning Concerned Women for America's new anti-gay outfit, (see www.workingforchange.com/ article.cfm?ItemID=11270 ) accuses the president of "failing to take any steps" to overturn President Clinton's "promotion of homosexuality," and charges him with "supporting a 'gay Republican' agenda."

CFI's new report, ^The Bush Administration's Republican Homosexual Agenda: The First 100 Days, co-authored by Robert Knight, Peter LaBarbera and Ken Ervin, admits that trusting President Bush to end "eight years of promotion of homosexuality under Clinton" may have been excessively "naïve." From early on in his campaign, the report argues, the Bush team set out "to mute opposition to the homosexual activist agenda to help him burnish a 'moderate' image." At the convention, Bush sought out of moderates which "translated into hiding the party's conservative pro-family leaders and any opposition to homosexuality."

The litany of criticism includes having Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson represent Bush at the party's platform hearings; allowing openly-gay Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Arizona) to give a primetime address at the convention while silencing the party's culture warriors; and choosing Dick Cheney--whose daughter Mary is an open lesbian--as his running mate.

The Cheney "factor" is particularly disheartening to the folks at CFI. They claim that Cheney "pushed the envelope" on homosexuality when, at a news conference in Vermont "he passed up the opportunity to criticize" the state's "civil unions" law. Then there was the one-upping of Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Connecticut) on gay issues during the vice presidential debate.

Cheney was asked, "Should a male who loves a male and a female who loves a female have all…the constitutional rights enjoyed by every American citizen?" Any self-respecting anti-gay candidate would have knocked that pitch out of the ballpark. "Instead of defending marriage and pointing out that homosexuals already have the same rights as other citizens, Cheney sounded libertarian themes and said different states would come to different conclusions in regulating homosexual 'marriage.'"

Bush's record on gay issues has been more than disappointing, it's been a disaster. In his first 100 days, the report claims that the president has:

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"appointed a homosexual activist [Scott Evertz] to head the White House office on AIDS;

"failed to overturn a single Clinton executive order dealing with homosexuality;

"continued the Clinton policy of issuing U.S. Department of Defense regulations to combat 'anti-gay harassment' in a military that is required by law to keep homosexuals out of the armed forces;

"presided over the appointment of a liberal homosexual activist [Stephen Herbits] and 'gays'-in-the-military crusader to oversee the choice of civilian personnel at the Pentagon;

"supported the application of a homosexual activist group [the International Lesbian and Gay Association] as a consulting group to the United Nations despite the group's opposition to the U.S. military's homosexual ban and other 'gay' goals such as legal 'marriage' and lowering the age of sexual consent for homosexuals."

Adding more fuel to the fire was the confirmation-conversion of Attorney General John Ashcroft. Seen as a reliable ally on gay issues, the report says that Ashcroft backed off his "long-held opposition to homosexuality" by telling the Judiciary Committee that he "accepted the concept of 'sexual orientation' as a civil rights category." The report alleges that Ashcroft has swerved so far from his previous positions that he's "earned the tentative praise of homosexual activists…[like] Log Cabin Republicans, a homosexual activist group," which was the first group Ashcroft met with after his confirmation.

Add to the mix the behavior of longtime GOP strategist Mary Matalin--of the Carville/Matalin traveling pundit show--who is now a senior advisor to both President Bush and Vice President Cheney. According to the report, Matalin, an advisor with "significant pro-homosexual credentials," has been an outspoken supporter for the inclusion of gays within the party's big tent. She was recently a "leading force behind another pro-homosexual GOP group, the Republican Unity Coalition (RUC), which purports to be an alliance between homosexual and non-homosexual political leaders who want to end the GOP's defense of traditional sexual morality."

Scott Evertz

An interesting anecdote about a meeting between Scott Evertz, President Bush's AIDS czar, and the president is telling. During a speech to Log Cabin Republicans, Evertz talked about his Oval Office meeting. "He [Bush] said, 'I did pretty well in the [g]ay community, didn't I?' Yes, Mr. President, you got a million votes, 25 percent of the [g]ay vote. And he said, 'Yea.' He had that look on his face and glee in his eyes."

That "look on his face and glee in his eyes" is enough of a signal to the Culture and Family Institute that all is not well at the White House. The report warns President Bush to stop taking his conservative pro-family supporters for granted. The Bush team "must consider that social conservatives regard the homosexual activist agenda as one of the greatest threats facing America." If it doesn't, "Mr. Bush [could be] a one-term president, just like his father."

Bill Berkowitz is a free lance writer covering the Religious Right and related conservative movements. Contact him at wkbbronx@aol.com.