President Bush: Showing us what compassion is all about

In preparation for my upcoming post on gay parenting/adoption, and other equal rights posts I plan to make, take a gander at President Bush's record on equal rights for Americans with minority sexual preferences. From John Kerry.com:

President Bush...

Opposes the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA)
During the second presidential debate in 2000, Bush said he did not support ENDA because he opposed "special rights.” On a 1998 survey, Bush stated that he opposed anti-discrimination laws for sexual orientation. Bush has maintained that opposition since taking office. [New York Times, 10/12/00; Project Votes Smart, 1998 NPAT, http://www.vote-smart.org; The New Republic, 4/29/02; National Review, 7/28/03]

Opposes Sex Education Programs that Stress Safe Sexual Practices
Bush’s new budget provides $136 million in additional funding for unproven abstinence-only sex education, bringing the federal total to over $250 million a year. Abstinence-only education marginalizes LGBT youth, telling them they should to have sex until marriage-which is prohibited by law. Recipients of abstinence-only funding must agree not to provide any information inconsistent with abstinence-till-marriage message meaning that safe sex, HIV and AIDS, and LGBT issues are often excluded. [NARAL, President Bush Budget Proposal; FY ’05; Lambda Legal, 9/5/02, http://www.lambdalega.org/]

Nominated Jerry Thacker to Presidential HIV/AIDS Advisory Council, a Man Who Called AIDS a “Gay Plague” and Homosexuality a “Death-Style”
The panel is co-chaired by Tom Coburn who told the Family Research Council that “no one stands harder against homosexuality than I do,” and Louis Sullivan who, as Secretary of Health and Human Services in 1989, buried a report on suicide among gay teens.[Washington Post, 2/5/03; The New Republic, 4/29/02]

Has Nominated Anti-Gay Individuals to the Federal Courts
Bush has appointed Claude Allen to the US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Allen, a former aide to Jesse Helms stated that a Helms opponent was vulnerable due to his ties “with the queers.” Bush also used a recess appointment in January 2004 to install Charles Pickering Sr. who decried the degradation of values by homosexuality, pornography and divorce. Bush has also appointed Bill Pryor, who as Alabama attorney general filed a brief with the Supreme Court that likened homosexuality with incest, necrophilia, pedophilia, prostitution and adultery. [NARAL, http://www.naral.org/; HRC, 1/16/04, http://www.hrc.org/; HRC, 6/10/03, http://www.hrc.org/]

Supports “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”
During the 2000 campaign Bush said he was a “don’t ask, don’t tell man” and would not “appoint someone to the Joint Chiefs of Staff who openly advocated allowing gays to serve in the military.” After he took office, the Pentagon fired a record 1,273 men and women based on sexual orientation. [New York Times, 1/7/00; Servicemembers' Legal Defense Network]

Supports a Federal Marriage Amendment, a Measure that Would Deny States the Right of Grant Same-Sex Couples The Rights Enjoyed by Straight Couples
“Marriage cannot be severed from its cultural, religious and natural roots without weakening the good influence of society. Government, by recognizing and protecting marriage, serves the interests of all. Today I call upon the Congress to promptly pass, and to send to the states for ratification, an amendment to our Constitution defining and protecting marriage as a union of man and woman as husband and wife.” [President Bush Statement, 2/24/04, www.whitehouse.gov]

Promoted Major Robert T. Clark to Lieutenant General, Despite Clark’s Ignorance of the Anti-Gay Climate at Fort Campbell—Base Where Barry Winchell was Killed Because He Was Thought To Be Gay
The Republican-controlled Senate confirmed Clark’s promotion November 18, 2003. [SLDN, 11/18/03]

Opposes Hate Crimes Legislation That Would Protect LGBT Americans From Violent Crimes and Assist the Prosecution of Anti-Gay Hate Crimes
As Governor of Texas, Bush sabotaged hate crimes legislation, with spokesperson Scott McClellan stating Bush “does not support special rights based on sexual orientation.” Bush has maintained this position throughout the 2000 campaign and since he has taken office. [Dallas Morning News, 4/26/99; Houston Chronicle, 11/17/03; National Review, 7/28/03]

Opposes Gay Adoption
Bush took a hard line against gay adoption during the 2000 campaign has maintained it. According to The Advocate, “George W. Bush has privately told friends that his fondest hope is to find a way to ban adoptions by gays.” [Houston Chronicle, 11/17/03; Progressive, Jan. 2004; The Advocate, 10/14/03]

Refuses to Issue an Official Proclamation Declaring June “Gay Pride Month”
Bush has refused for three years to issue a public proclamation of Pride Month. The Department of Justice used this to initially deny LGBT employees the right to hold a Pride ceremony and then demanded that they pay for it themselves. [Washington Times, 10/8/03; The New Republic, 6/23/03]

I know My 2 Cents and other conservatives who oppose my beliefs will use my source for this information as their primary weapon against the information. Let them keep in mind that Senator Kerry's campaign did not make this information us (note the citations). I wish I could say the same for some allegations made by several of my conservative colleagues...