What, you thought Laura Bush was going to go wide with her support for same-sex marriage while her husband was still president? The man was campaigning on a constitutional amendment banning it!
Just like Cindy McCain and, perhaps one day Michelle Obama, the wives of leading political figures find themselves free to express their LGBT equality viewpoints after their spouses are out of the national spotlight. We’re no fools; it’s completely understandable why this happens, because a politician — particularly those running for president — need to look they have complete unity among supporters, and their married partners are clearly at the core of that camp.
But it’s always a bit disingenuous to have these folks take the national stage, as Ms. Bush did last night on Larry King, to run their mouths on these issues when they have a book to sell.
tinkerbell
F*@% that C#&T! She is a part of the people who go to the ballot and vote to make us second class citizens. I’m SO sick of this country and its BS discrimination.
james_in_cambridge
Do I have to say it…Queerty, you stupid, blah, blah, blah. Michelle Obama is not Laura Bush, blah, blah, blah…it’s like talking to a really dense wall. The Obamas are NOT the Bushes. Deal with it.
Laura, welcome to the future. It’s nice to have you on our side. Clearly her daughter’s feel the same way as well. And let’s be honest…so does George Bush. Georgie Porgie just used us to rev up his base but neither he nor Karl Rove believed in the anti-gay bullshit they spouted, which probably makes them worse than the believers. There was a story by a Bush insider that came out a few months ago about how at one of his farewell speeches, Bush’s speechwriter put in a line about standing up for traditional marriage and how gay marriage is wrong, etc. Bush supposedly reamed out the speechwriter and told him to take out that particular passage, that he wasn’t going to tell some kid in the audience that might be gay that he can’t ever get married. It’s all a big political game to them.
JamesStone
It’s kind of like..”I truly understand why my husband thinks blacks should sit in the back of the bus…I don’t feel that way..but I understand why he does…”
tjr101
Laura Bush was always a closeted liberal and just played her part as the perfect stepford wife while in the White House. Cindy McCain would have done the same had their camp won. Same goes with Nancy Reagan, that’s just the protocol wives of Republican politicians must follow.
Andrew
@tinkerbell: Seriously. Shut the fuck up. She isn’t God, she can’t wave a magic pixie wand and give us our rights. And frankly I don’t blame her that she was loyal to her husband during his administration…if I were in her shoes, I would be. You can’t help who you fall in love with.
The Artist
@JamesStone: Don’t ever compare black movement to the gay movement. There are not interchangeable. With that said that doesn’t mean we can’t all be like minded individuals moving toward the same goals of equality. PEACELUVNBWILD!
tinkerbell
@The Artist: You are correct…blacks were never sent to the Nazi death camps. Blacks didn’t go to the gas chambers of Auschwitz like gay men did.
C’mon, let’s not get into the petty argument of “my civil rights movement is more deserving than yours.” Discrimination is discrimination. Civil rights are for everyone. If black people are discriminated against, I will be the first to speak up. If gay folk are discriminated against, I would hope you would speak up.
Josh
@The Artist:
There was a time when being gay was considered both a crime (gay sex was illegal) and a mental illness. There were places where gays could be forced to endure castrations (for males obviously), electric shock therapy, and lobotomies against their will.
The gay rights movement started when gays rioted against the police who were raiding gay bars and neighborhoods.
Of course African Americans were treated worse. No other groups in America were treated as bad as African Americans and Native Americans. But where does Oppression Olympics get us?
Women’s rights and gay rights are still civil rights issues as they are about civil law, public policy, and human rights.
Christian groups in Uganda have been advocating the genocide of gays (life imprisonment for all gays, executions for aggravated homosexuality, and ban on advocating for gay rights).
In some Islamic nations, gays are executed (google to see gay teens hanging from nooses in Iran at public executions).
So don’t tell me gays haven’t been persecuted or that gay rights aren’t civil rights.
Andrew
@The Artist: Really? Gay people are still killed around the world. Being Gay was illegal in half the USA up until 2003. Gay people are shot, hung and murdered for who they are. Gay people were specific targets during the holocaust, and face mass discrimination, — especially in certain parts of this country, and in much of the world.
Are the same amount of people affected? No. Not even close. Is it easier for Gays to escape this persecution? Perhaps. And is it as dramatic? Nada. But all too often I hear this argument from people on the right to try and brand our demands for our rights as “whining” which is all too untrue.
delurker again
@Josh: “Of course African Americans were treated worse. No other groups in America were treated as bad as African Americans and Native Americans. But where does Oppression Olympics get us?”
Thank you. I’m glad a gay person recognizes this. You’re right, it gets us nowhere. But perspective is always needed.
s_b
From my perspective, it’s kind of lame that she’s doing this now, when Bush is out of office, but at the same time, it really speaks to our power that she feels obligated to do it at all. She could have just skipped over the whole issue in her book, but she chose to address it. Which to me sounds an awful lot like we’re winning!
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
@The Artist: I kinda sorta remember learning ’bout a group who like the Gays today were denied the right to marry whom they wanted to in this country. There were laws on every state in the union denying them the same rights as the majority, wanted to deny them housing and employment rights…… Those opposing that particular group beat and killed them just like what happens to Gays today..guess you may have figured the group am refering to is the Blacks. And it does look like their struggles are in fact interchangeble………….
dvlaries
Her mother-in-law ‘discovered’ her own, same pro-choice stance in the early 90s, once Clinton was in and there was no risk at all. You can go ahead and spare us such demonstrations of bravery, toots.
Chapeau
Quelle surprise — another Republican whose selling a book decides that *gays should be afforded rights*.
I know I’m supposed to be grateful for anyone coming out with their support for Gay EQuality … but this just smacks of opportunism and is the height of duplicity IMHO.
Now that she is irrelevant and so is that worthless bag of shit of a husband of hers … NOW, she wants to have an open dialogue … Yeah where were you when it might have made a difference?
STFU and go back to wherever you crawled out of to sell your book.
T-in-Cali
anyone ever heard the phrase “too little, too late”
Honestly Ms Bush, if you couldn’t stand up for us then, you’re NOT our ally.
If you couldn’t make your voice heard while it had the most power, you’re not a humanitarian.
If you chose to stand by and let all the hate and venom spew as your husband and his cohorts slammed our community, then shame on you.
All the while preaching about standing up for your values.
You are a disgrace. And i would LOVE the chance to say that to her face.
christopher di spirito
Pickle Bush will say anything to sell her stupid book.
I just hope the LGBT community is smart enough to recognize what a deceitful hag she is, and doesn’t fall for her cornpone act.
Trust me, neither Pickles or the Chimp are friends of the gay community.
Andrew
Wow, you guys are pathetic.
So are you all saying that no one can ever change their mind?
Well let me tell you something. If we have this mentality that when someone changes their mind, “Fuck you, you weren’t with us from the start so go to hell”, we aren’t going to get anywhere.
Josh
I think we need to be strategic too.
I fully understand the anger at her not speaking out as clearly before as I share that anger.
BUT, we should reach out to her and encourage her to be a forceful advocate for GLBT rights.
She could help persuade Republicans to vote for glbt issues.
At the very least we can taunt the conservatives with the fact that Laura Bush and the Cheney’s are for gay marriage.
Fitz
@Josh: You are probably right. I am not ‘there yet’.
No one could REALLY have these feelings of equality and fairness and sleep next to someone who is so evil. I am just not there. I don’t welcome her. I don’t wish her well.
Bill Perdue
Clinton tried the same trick, Neither he or Laura Bush want to be thought of as bigots.
Too bad, too late.
We’ll have to wait and see what if Obama apologizes for “gawd’s in tthe mix.” He supported same sex marriage when he started out in politics but dis a quick about face when the christer bigots called him on it.
Bill Perdue
@The Artist: It’s historically inaccurate to equate the two struggles but illustrative and sometimes helpful to compare and contrast them.
Republican
While I agree that Laura concealed her position from the public when it would have mattered most (a very poor decision on her part), I welcome her to the pro-equality club with open arms and I think other gays would be wise to do so as well. Even if you can’t get yourself to like her as a person, consider how it helps the cause to have someone like her on our side. The wishy-washy undecideds of the world will listen to someone like her long before they’ll listen to the words of someone who is on our side yet abrasive.
Andrew
@Fitz: What the hell are you talking about? She can’t help who she loves. What do you expect her to do? Divorce her husband, damage her kids and destroy her family?
For god sakes…we ask people to be empathetic towards us and our cause, but a lot of the vitrol on Queerty almost makes me want to dissociate with most of you…. Especially when it comes to people who are SUPPORTING US.
paulcanning
@tinkerbell:
Actually no. Nazi Germany did send the very few African-Germans to camps. Go Google it.
Devonasa
I know people like to spoout the “a little to late’ mantra”, but in my mind its better late than never.
She and her husband may be out of office, but I know alot of women who are friends of my parents, and women I have come into acquantance with who are republicans and look up to Laura Bush. So although, she may still not be the first lady, she still has influence amongst those who respect her and look up to her. The same goes for Cindy McCain.
Thom Freeheart
I wish more people were like Laura Bush and not like George and Barack.
Singlerpm
@Thom Freeheart:
Let’s not knock Laura Bush — because to paraphrase an article right here on QUEERTY a while ago….”Current POTUS is not the Gay Messiah we thought he was going to be for our causes”
james_in_cambridge
@tinkerbell: You being serious? There were no Blacks for the Nazi’s to put in death camps in 1930’s Germany…or France…what in God’s name are you talking about??? The African population of Europe didn’t start to increase until way past WWII. Now, if you want to get into the whole slavery/rape/lynching trifecta of the first 400 years of this country’s history we can but comparing whether Blacks or Gays have suffered worse is not a winning issue for us gays so let’s just move on…
Bill Perdue
@tinkerbell: Obviously you’re not very bright.
“”Some historians claim that the first sizeable influx of Africans to Germany came from Germany’s African colonies in the 19th century. Some Afro-Germans living in Germany today can claim ancestry going back five generations to that time. Yet Prussia’s colonial adventures in Africa were quite limited and brief (1890-1918), far more modest than the British, the Dutch, the French, or other European powers, so there could not have been any great numbers… After World War I, more blacks, mostly French Senegalese soldiers or their offspring, ended up in the Rhineland region and other parts of Germany. Estimates vary, but by the 1920s there were about 10,000 to 25,000 Afrodeutsche in Deutschland, most of them in Berlin or other metropolitan areas.. When Adolf Hitler came to power in 1932, the racist policies of the Nazis impacted other groups besides the Jews. The Nazis’ racial purity laws also targeted gypsies (Roma), homosexuals, the mentally challenged, and blacks. Precisely how many Afro-Germans died in Nazi concentration camps is not known, but estimates put the figure at between 25,000 and 50,000.”
If your ignornace is willful then the term for it is racism. If not you’re simply ignorant. That’s much easier to correct.
Cassandra
Blacks during the Holocaust
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005479
For Bill who hates Christians and whose prejudice atheism is intrinsically anti-Semitic as well:
“Eleven million precious human lives were lost during the Holocaust. Five million of these were non-Jewish. Three million were Polish Christians and Catholics.” http://www.holocaustforgotten.com/
The reality of the Holocaust, and of prejudice itself, is far more convoluted, complex and extensive than most people realize. Few know that the communist regime in East Germany persecuted and suppressed religion, creating an atheist society that will forever be known for the Berlin Wall and the attrocities of the Stasi. China and the now defunct Soviet Union gutted the religious institutions, stripping them of their spirituality and turning them into tools of the state – and both regimes have/had an extensive history of human rights violations.
The fact that prejudice has been wielded against any kind of people, every kind of people, for any reason and all reasons, is why all prejudice, including Bill’s hatred of Christians, is a social obscenity. Celebrating any one prejudice nurtures them all.
It is not a coincidence that racism is rampaging in the U.S. again, in the Tea-baggers and in Arizona, in anti-Muslim hate crimes, that radicalized atheists spread anti-faith hate speech all over the interent: our society celebrated and institutionalized one prejudice by banning same-sex marriage, and in doing so, gave the green light to every other prejudice.
Feed one prejudice and you feed them all.
As for “The Artist”‘s sad game of pity and ‘we had it worse’, well, that’s a game no one can win, because it exploits the suffering of real human beings to win worthless brownie points in an anonymous online debate.
$0.02
@tinkerbell, blacks were sent to Africa during the Holocaust even when they were from the states and carribean. Black men and women in this country are killed, victemized and violated everyday in this country. So you say you’ll stand for us eh? Did you stand for three or four out of many of the gay black men that were brutally murdered last year including a college professor and a teenaged boy? Did you stand for the many victems that this country ignored during Hurricane Katrina? Did you stand for the young black immigrant man who was shot 40 times by police when he was tryng to pull his wallet out of his pocket in NYC to identify himself, just for them to find out they had the wrong person? Did you stand for the six black boys of the Jena 6? Were you in Louisiana rallying with us? Did you stand for Dr. Skip Gates when he was arrested in his own home for being in his own home??? Did you stand for the black man that was dragged to his death after a pick up truck or the dozen nameless faceless black men that are still being hung in the south these PAST FEW YEARS that doesn’t get reported CNN? Some how I find that very hard to believe. When it comes to problems black people face, especially us black LGBT people the rest of you are MIA, we know we’re on our own…
WiseUp
I’d never compare black Civil Rights, etc., with same-sex rights. After getting full equality, I doubt gays will be killing each other at the rates African-Americans do (four times as high a murder rate as before the civil rights movement).
Bill Perdue
@WiseUp: People who wear their bedding instead of sleeping on it are even worse pigs than christer bigots like Rick Warren, Obama buddy and early supporter of mass murder of GLBT folks in Uganda.
james_in_cambridge
@WiseUp: You really DO NOT live up to your name. Was DumbAss taken?
WiseUp
Sorry, James. I guess you can’t deal with facts so you attack the messenger.
WiseUp
Bill Perdue : Methinks you’re the one wearing bedsheets, with your constant Klan-correct anti-Catholicism.
Bill Perdue
@WiseUp: Of course I oppose the rapists, the anti-semites and the not obviously sane types who run the for-profit jebuz inc.
Most sane people do.
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jeffree
Cigarettes versus narcotics? It was a constant DC rumor that Mrs. Bush occasionally relapsed on the whole “no smokin’ thang.”
All I know is that I was married to GWB, I would of been main-lining heroin & getting any doctor within driving distance to write prescriptions for vicodin or anything with codiene! Using the fake name “Juin Cleaver” as my alias!
As someone whose never smoked pot or used any narcotix or hallucinogenix, (I did exstacy a few times long while ago) THAT means something !
Laura can redeem herself, just maybe :
only by pressuring her oddly silent husband and her counterpart MiChelle to get the current POTUS to do the right things: end DADT, strike down DOMA, and enact ENDA.
Oh, and since she was a LIBRARIAN, how about fighting the battle against banned books in school libraries?
jeffree
Ooops. I meant IF I were married to GWB.