Laura Bush has admitted secretly supporting gay marriage and abortion rights during her husband's eight years as president.
The former first lady said she kept quiet so as not to be seen backing measures which George W Bush had strongly opposed and used to galvanise support during his election campaigns. Mrs Bush said in a television interview that the couple shared their disagreements in private but were not "argumentative". "I understand his viewpoint and he understands mine," she said. "I think we ought to look at gay marriage and debate it. A lot of people have trouble coming to terms with it, because they see marriage traditionally as a man and woman. But I also know that when couples are committed to each other and love each other, they ought to have the same sort of rights that everyone has." Asked if the US could accept gay marriage, she told CNN: "I think we could ... It's also a generational thing." Mrs Bush said she didn't discuss the issues when her husband was president because she was rarely asked about them. She recalled the turmoil she faced when asked about her views on the Supreme Court judgment that legalised abortion during an interview on her husband's inauguration day in 2001. But in the interview with CNN this week she was more expansive, saying that abortion should "remain legal, because I think it's important for people, for medical reasons and other reasons". In her recently published memoir, Spoken from the Heart, Mrs Bush said that she spoke to her husband "about not making gay marriage a significant issue" in the 2004 election. "We have, I reminded him, a number of close friends who are gay or whose children are gay," she wrote. Mr Bush endorsed a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage after Massachusetts became the first state to allow gays and lesbians to wed. He also refused to sign a United Nations statement condemning the criminalisation of homosexuality. In 2004, several states put referendums on gay marriage on the ballot alongside the vote for president in what was seen as an attempt to turn out Right-wing and evangelical voters. Michael Cole, spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, the leading US gay rights group, said: "When the Right-wing was using same-sex couples as election year pawns we would have welcomed support from the first lady. Nevertheless, her speaking out now for marriage equality shows that more and more Americans realise all families need the same rights and protections." Terry O'Neill, president of the National Organisation for Women, said: "Every first lady has to make choices on what they will take a public stance on, and she is not the elected official. But I am thrilled she is now going public with her views." --- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts --- multipart/alternative text/plain (text body -- kept) text/html --- _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[email protected] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
