In a move that has become all too predictable from the children of high-profile political celebrities, former President George W. Bush’s daughter, Barbara Bush, has come out publicly in favor of same-sex marriage.
The 29-year-old namesake of the President’s own mother recently took part in a video advertisement produced by the Human Rights Campaign, a high-profile homosexual activist group that has been at the forefront of the push for “gay” marriage. On the video Ms. Bush, who resides in New York and manages a non-profit public health group, tells viewers, “I’m a New Yorker for marriage equality. New York is about fairness and equality and everyone should have the right to marry the person that they love.”
Officials with the group approached Ms. Bush to query her about appearing in the video after she attended a fundraising event sponsored by the American Foundation for Equal Rights, an organization working to reverse California’s Proposition 8, a 2008 ballot initiative that overturned that state’s legalization of homosexual marriage. The video was produced specifically to lobby for the legalization of same-sex marriage in the state of New York.
While New York’s state assembly passed a bill legalizing same-sex marriage in 2009, the bill did not make it through the state senate. But recently elected Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo has come out in favor of the legislation, and homosexual activists said they think there is enough support in both houses to pass the measure this year and send it to Cuomo’s desk for signature.
President Bush has been a consistent supporter of traditional marriage, and in 2004 even came out in favor of a ill-advised (because it would extend the power of the federal government and usurp a prerogative rightfully belonging to the states) campaign for a federal constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. However, in addition to his daughter, Mr. Bush’s wife Laura has expressed her support for legalizing homosexual marriage. In 2006, as President Bush spoke out in favor of a federal ban on homosexual marriage, Mrs. Bush told Fox News that she didn’t think the issue “should be used as a campaign tool…. It requires a lot of sensitivity to just talk about the issue — a lot of sensitivity.”
In addition, Mr. Bush’s Vice President Dick Cheney has stood in solidarity with his lesbian daughter by coming out in favor of same-sex marriage.
President Bush isn’t the only politician who has had a difficult time keeping his family on the right team. When Senator John McCain was running for President in 2008 his wife Cindy and daughter Megan took part in a campaign in opposition to Proposition 8, which was on the ballot that year. In response to his family’s participation in the campaign sponsored by the homosexual activist group NOH8 (“No Hate”), McCain’s campaign office issued a carefully worded statement saying that while Mr. McCain respected the views of his wife and daughter, “Sen. McCain believes the sanctity of marriage is only defined as between one man and one woman.”
Former President Bush issued no statement in response to his daughter’s actions.
Photo: In this file photo of Aug. 6, 2008, U.S. President George W. Bush, first lady Laura Bush (out of picture), and daughter, Barbara Bush, arrive at military base in Bangkok: AP Images
