The Ten Worst LGBT Moments of George W. Bush's Presidency

Published January 17, 2009 @ 10:20AM PT

President Bush Well, this is it, the last weekend of President George W. Bush. As the “End of the Omnipotence” draws nigh, we’re taking a look back at the past eight years, and covering some of the worst moments in LGBT rights that happened under the watchful cowboy hat of #43. Was this President the most anti-gay leader we’ve had? I'd love your thoughts.

10. La la la la, I can’t hear you, Matthew Shepard Act. Fact: Under the Bush administration, hate crimes committed against LGBT citizens have risen dramatically throughout the U.S. Fact: With bipartisan support, the 110^th Congress passed the Matthew Shepard Act, which would add sexual orientation to the list of protected classes under federal hate crimes laws. Fact: President Bush threatened to veto the legislation, to the point where the Act languished in the gallows of the Beltway. Bush’s promised veto of this bill is a shameful legacy, especially given the FBI’s October 2008 report that said hate crimes against LGBT citizens had increased six percent nationwide over the previous year. More frightening? That number is a lowball figure. Not all police precincts report hate crimes to the FBI, so we’re only seeing number reflected from a very small percentage of police jurisdictions across the U.S. Shameful. Bush had a chance to send a message about anti-violence. Instead he sat on his hands.

9. Legitimizing anti-gay talk radio. This week alone we’ve heard Michael Savage say that workplace diversity training would force straight people to engage in sodomy, and radio host Gunny Bob Newman say that allowing openly gay men to serve in the military would spread HIV like hotcakes. During the past eight years, talk radio has become a bastion of anti-gay rhetoric and homophobia, all legitimized by the Bush administration. When Rush Limbaugh says that the Democratic party “bends over” for gays and blacks, he gets rewarded by having Vice President Dick Cheney on his show. Sean Hannity gives airspace to radical activists who threaten violence toward LGBT leaders, and he’s rewarded with sit-downs with White House staff. Sure, radical right-wing radio will continue even after Bush heads to Dallas. But it’s legitimization by the White House should end.

GWB JP II 8. And the award goes to… Six months before the 2004 election, President Bush traveled to Italy as a PR stunt to lure the Catholic vote to award then Pope John Paul II a Medal of Freedom. Now, when it comes to blasting LGBT folks, current Pope Benedict XVI makes JP II look like an angel. But Pope John Paul II certainly gave his fair share of anti-LGBT commentary. He called gay marriage one of the gravest challenges facing mankind, and under his reign, the Vatican launched in July 2003 a global campaign to defeat same-sex marriage. We get that the Pope is an important world leader. But bestowing a Medal of Freedom to a man who sought to deny freedoms to LGBT people around the world strikes us as tasteless. Perhaps had the Pope spent more time speaking out against war, famine, global poverty, torture and other actual grave challenges to humanity instead of honing in on LGBT rights…

7. When marriage equality advocates are like crooked politicians. Bush’s 2006 State of the Union speech compared unethical politicians to same-sex marriage supporters. Classy, right? Bush also alluded to gay marriage being an affront to the health and well-being of the family. Still, by most measures, this 2006 speech was nothing like his 2005 State of the Union speech, where he threatened to dismantle social security AND launch a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as between one man and one woman. Is there anyone else thankful that Bush doesn’t get to deliver any more State of the Union speeches?

6. The abstinence-only curriculum heard ‘round the world. The Bush administration made stigmatization of homosexuality no accident in its abstinence-only policies. Federal abstinence-only programs under the Bush administration require students to learn that heterosexual marriage is the expected standard and that anything outside of heterosexual marriage is harmful. Further, according to Legal Momentum, many abstinence-only programs funded by the Bush administration conflate being gay with being diseased. Others completely twist biological facts for their own agenda. Case in point, the Abstinence Clearinghouse, a federally funded program that tells children, “the male and female body are not anatomically suited to accommodate sexual relations with members of the same sex.” Lies, lies, and more lies.

5. The pimping out of Mary Cheney. When Sen. John Kerry mentioned the fact that Vice President Dick Cheney had a gay daughter during the third and final Presidential debate of 2004, you would have thought he committed treason the way the Bush/Cheney camps reacted. Lynne Cheney famously called Kerry “not a good man,” and accused him of a “cheap and tawdry political trick.” But the reality of the situation is that the VP’s daughter, Mary Cheney, was an out lesbian for years. Kerry might as well have said, “The sky is blue.” Worse, Dick Cheney used his daughter’s sexuality in a campaign stump speech months earlier, and during his Vice Presidential Debate with Sen. John Edwards, he actually thanked Edwards for being so kind to his lesbian daughter. All the Bush campaign succeeded in doing by feigning disgust at Sen. Kerry was tarnishing the word lesbian. Worse, they threw Mary Cheney under the bus by acting as if they were ashamed of their daughter.

UN Logo 4. We prefer the way Sudan does it. If you had to choose sides between a country that allows LGBT persons to live private lives and commit to a partner of the same-sex, or a country that murders homosexuals, has killed hundreds of thousands of its own people, and whose own President has an arrest warrant out on him for committing war crimes, which would you choose? The U.S. chose the latter, by siding with Sudan (as well as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Libya, and Yemen) in denying support to a United Nations statement calling for an end to the criminalization of homosexuality around the globe. The Bush administration always had a rocky relationship with the UN (John Bolton, anyone?), but this final kick in the teeth shows just how devalued the United Nations was under #43.

gavel 3. The error of Lawrence v. Texas. We’re not saying that the Bush administration’s penchant for hiring graduates from Regent University was a bad thing (though as a law school, it’s in the lowest-tier of nationwide rankings, tied for 136^th place). What we are saying here, however, is that when a graduate from Pat Robertson’s college says that the U.S. Supreme Court case they most disagreed with was Lawrence v. Texas – the case that threw out sodomy laws across the U.S. – they probably shouldn’t be given high profile positions with the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. (To us, that’s sort of tantamount to rewarding someone who disagrees with Brown v. Board to be the head of a civil rights commission.) But that’s what happened under the Bush administration, as Regent University graduates (known for their opposition to abortion and LGBT rights) flooded all levels of the federal government for the past eight years. Again, we don’t mean to slander an entire student body. But this certainly does seem like another example where the Bush administration places adherence to a particular religion above adherence to a particular law. Oh, and remember Monica Goodling? She was a Regent University graduate, too.

2. What do 6,000 discharged servicemembers look like? Not only did the Bush administration take our country into two wars (Iraq and Afghanistan), they also stood and watched as more than 6,000 U.S. servicemembers were discharged under the archaic “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy over the past eight years. To add insult to, well, insult, several of the individuals discharged were highly qualified Arabic translators, one of the most valuable positions currently within the U.S. military. To put it bluntly, this policy hurt our national security. Thankfully, the days of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” seem to be nearing an end. But it won’t be because of contributions made by the Bush administration.

voting booth 1. Marriage amendments galore. Karl Rove’s playbook may be the most damning legacy from the Bush administration when it comes to LGBT rights. The White House’s tacit (or not so tacit) support of gay marriage amendments throughout the country helped solidify Bush’s re-election in 2004, bringing social conservatives out of the woodwork. Nearly a dozen states passed marriage amendments in 2004, including Ohio, the state that tipped the Electoral College to Bush. More states followed suit in 2006 and 2008, with Florida’s Amendment 2, Arizona’s Proposition 102, and California’s Proposition 8 leading the way. Ballot initiatives are nothing new when it comes to limiting or repealing LGBT rights, dating back to at least Anita Bryant. But to have a White House actively working to support them is something new, and the Bush administration took full advantage of its bully pulpit.

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Comments (20)

Sorry to say that the outgoing President was the shining example of what negativity towards LGBT People has been. Hopefully, there will never be a repeat of non-concern for humanity in the future.

Posted by Michael Hunt on 01/17/2009 @ 12:07PM PT
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Happy trails "W". Never again!

Posted by leatrice brantley on 01/17/2009 @ 02:17PM PT
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I am just so happy that he is leaving!!

Posted by Michaela Marie on 01/17/2009 @ 02:31PM PT
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I read an article somewhat like this one this morning. Maybe we should go for 100 reason's. He's set us back to the 1930's economically and don't you just love his last actions in office?! Why is he still able to do ANYTHING other then pack up his junk and go????

Posted by Andrea M on 01/17/2009 @ 03:01PM PT
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Unfortunately, Obama's going to need his own list in eight years.

Posted by Luella - on 01/17/2009 @ 07:12PM PT
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Is that a projection, Luella? Is there a way to think about it that would engender hope rather than doom? Think about what it would mean if what you said were true?

Posted by Virginia Burton on 01/18/2009 @ 06:19AM PT
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This article is offered, I suppose, as a contrast to how things will be for LGBT in the future, but I think there is serious reason avoid optimism. Obama voted FOR CHENEY"S bill blocking citizens from going after telecom companies. He and his vice president oppose marriage rights for gays, and he invited Rick Warren to participate in his inauguration. Having a token gay give a prayer the day before does not hide Obama's true leanings. If anyone thinks he gives a damn about gay people, they are seriously deluded. If he reverses "Don't ask, don't tell.", its because he wants more bodies for Afghanistan, not because he thinks gays deserve equal rights. His views on marriage indicate that. He gives a nice speech, and I do wish him the best. He is the only person I have ever voted for for president, but I don't expect anything good for gay people from him. Gays have to accept the fact (with prop 8,and 80% of blacks voting for it) that they have no friends in the USA.

Posted by Ben Bently on 01/18/2009 @ 10:38AM PT
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This was a disappointment. I was already disappointed with this man in so many ways, but with his staff being the most culturally and racially diverse in history, I don't understand why He didn't come through here.

Posted by Charlie Reed on 01/18/2009 @ 11:24AM PT
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Obama will be an improvement for LGBT folks, but he has a long way to go. Marriage is a human construct and, as such, can be altered to respond to deepening of understanding. To say that marriage is the exclusive domain of one woman and one man, is to brand same sex unions as defective and, therefore, homosexuals as defective. Regarding Rick Warren, nothing wrong in having a dialogue with the man, but to give him a place of honor without the opportunity of dialogue at that moment, is a tacit approval of his discriminatory stance and practices. I find it inulting and offensive. Obama is a bright man, so I hope that his awareness on this issue will develop. He should invite Barney Frank over for dinner.

Posted by David Stein on 01/18/2009 @ 02:13PM PT
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Well, it is a moral evil, so you can't object to the Pope's spreaking accurately on church doctrine. Otherwise he'd be a hypocrite. And the pope has done so many things to help millions worldwide, I don't think that should be discredited just because of some angry gay agenda.

Posted by Regina Combs on 01/18/2009 @ 04:36PM PT
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Miss combs...

Your full of shit.

Theres nothing at all moral about discriminating against a minority who's only "crime" is a sexual orientation that cant be changed.

Posted by Thomas McHugh on 09/27/2009 @ 05:13PM PT
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I am all for him inviting gay politicians for dinner, but not just because they are gay. Barney Frank is an embarrasment to my adopted home state. (Mass) His role in forcing banks to make high risk loans and mortgages was the first card to fall in this current economic mess!

Posted by Charlie Reed on 01/18/2009 @ 05:35PM PT
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Obama might not do anything good for lgbt americans but at least he probably won't use us as a scapegoat. He has been more gay friendly so far than any presidential canditate in US history. We can only hope.

Posted by Chad Fisher on 01/18/2009 @ 05:52PM PT
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Everything is a moral evil to one religious belief system of another. In my church, you could not dance and women could not wear makeup, the pope is against birth control and divorce, the Islamics are against everything in the western world, baptist are against alcohol... it is endless. Of course I can object! I can object to any of these perverted belief systems impinging upon my life. I am sure that you do also. What if you were told that from now on you must wear a ,berka or be neighed a transfusion for your child after after an auto accident because the ER doc is a newly reformed Jahova's witness and its against his beliefs. Don't be crazy. We do not have to accept other peoples religions, especially if they are violent to our lives and loved ones.

Posted by Ben Bently on 01/18/2009 @ 05:56PM PT
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When Bush was running for President I couldn't turn on my tv or read a newspaper without being told how evil and discusting I am for being born gay. Obama never did that in his campaign so he got my vote. I don't think he's a savior but he is the lesser of evils.

Posted by Chad Fisher on 01/18/2009 @ 06:57PM PT
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Wow well I am glad tthat bush is out finally!. No more chaos and anti-anything!.
Hopefully Obama gets rid of the DADT law as he said he was(is) going to do!.

Posted by Michelle nonya on 01/18/2009 @ 10:38PM PT
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So, congratulations for being the worst president in American history. That's not just my personal opinion; that's the opinion of 109 historians polled by the History News Network. Fully 61 percent ranked Bush as the "worst ever;" 98 percent labeled his presidency a "failure." And this poll, taken in early 2008, predated the cataclysmic housing and banking crashes. Bye-bye W -- history will not be kind.

Posted by Andrea M on 01/19/2009 @ 01:53AM PT
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Agreed, he was horrible. But I think the Democrats share some responsibility for the magnitude of the problems. They were much too agreeable, when they could have stood up and fought.

I am hoping, too, that Obama will evolve into a more gay-positive outlook, and will help us in the end. How old are his daughters? Maybe one of them will be gay...

Posted by Sue VanHattum on 01/19/2009 @ 07:53AM PT
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Having a token gay give a prayer the day before does not hide Obama's true leanings....oh you are so RIGHT Ben, particularly since his team ordered that Bishop Robinson not be seen or heard (mic turned off). He already has his list going and its messy already. But we are on it and not SILENT anymore. Michael...can we do monthly recaps of Obama's blunders???

Posted by Lee Dorsey on 01/19/2009 @ 12:11PM PT
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King george wrong way bush was the absolute worst president ever...Comparable to adoph hitler in my book.

Thank the great spirit hes gone...

Posted by Thomas McHugh on 09/27/2009 @ 05:30PM PT
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Michael is the Communications Director for the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School, and previously was Communications Director for Pax Christi USA, a progressive Catholic human rights organization.