Former first lady Laura Bush urged her husband not to make the freedom to marry an issue in 2004

April 30, 2010

As reported by Ann Gerhart for The Washington Post:

"On marriage equality, she [Mrs. Bush] writes that before the beginning of the 2004 presidential campaign, 'I had talked to George about not making the freedom to marry a significant issue. We have, I reminded him, a number of close friends who are gay or whose children are gay. But at that moment I could never have imagined what path this issue would take and where it would lead.'

"It led, of course, to a divisiveness which persists in American politics. In her memoir, Bush does not dwell on that. Instead, she writes with dismay of Sen. John Kerry answering a presidential debate question about the subject by mentioning that Vice President Cheney's daughter, Mary, is a lesbian. 'Beside me, Jenna and Barbara gasped. They were utterly stunned that a candidate would use an opponent's child in a debate.'"

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