Bush’s Gay Flip-Flop

If you really think Bush is telling the truth here, I’ve got a bridge to sell you :

Some conservative groups expressed dismay Tuesday over President Bush’s tolerance of state-sanctioned civil unions between gay people ? laws that would grant same-sex partners most or all the rights available to married couples.

“I don’t think we should deny people rights to a civil union, a legal arrangement, if that’s what a state chooses to do so,” Bush said in an interview aired Tuesday on ABC. Bush acknowledged that his position put him at odds with the Republican platform, which opposes civil unions.

“I view the definition of marriage different from legal arrangements that enable people to have rights,” said Bush, who has pressed for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. “States ought to be able to have the right to pass laws that enable people to be able to have rights like others.”

Bush is in serious trouble in the swing states. This is an obvious attempt to try to seem less extreme. If Bush supported civil unions, he would have mentioned his stance at least once in the past year while he was campaigning in favor of the constitutional amendment that bans civil unions. For a more realistic idea of how Bush feels about gay people, check out the Christian Coalition’s voter guide :


voterguide.gif

(via the Dead Letter Office)

Maybe I’ve lived in a blue state too long, because the gay people adopting thing was a little surprising at first. I guess I should know better than to underestimate the vitriol of homophobes.


posted by greg on October 26, 2004 @ 6:38 pm

3 comments

  1. I hate hypotheticals, but just imagine the hew and cry in the NYT if Kerry flipped like this.

    Comment by eRobin — October 26, 2004 @ 10:00 pm

  2. Jesus…

    is this desperation or speaking off-script?

    Comment by Alex — October 27, 2004 @ 10:39 am

  3. Interesting that he uses the word “Rights.” If Civil Unions protect rights, then under the equal protection clause of the Constitution, the courts have a duty to enforce those rights, at the Federal level.

    But I’m sure Bush wasn’t thinking about the actual meaning of what he was saying.

    A few months ago Bush was on Larry King when he made a comment which I thought was hilarious, but which passed without much comment at the time. Defending his position on gay marriage, Bush said something to this effect: “If there are concerns by some gay people about such things as having the right to inherit, I say the answer to that is to eliminate the Estate Tax.”

    This appears to make no sense, since if you don’t have the right to inherit, it doesen’t help to have no estate tax, but perhaps Bush is planting the seeds for a compromise: Gay people can get married if they agree to pay the estate taxes of heterosexuals.

    Comment by RKC — October 27, 2004 @ 3:17 pm

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