Former Bush Aide: There Were 70 Closeted Gay White House Staffers Working For W

Former staffer Stephen Levine says at least 70 gay Republicans, most or all closeted, were in the White House working for former President George W. Bush.

Politico is out with a story this afternoon about gay Republican Stephen Levine, a former Bush staffer who claims that there were at least 70 gay staffers — all men except for two women — working in the George W. Bush White House. 

Given that practically if not every state ban on same-sex marriage was the result of George W. Bush, “the architect” Karl Rove, and gay Republican Ken Mehlman, this is a huge bombshell. Imagine if those state bans had not been there — would marriage equality have come faster?

In the Politico piece, Levine describes how he felt when he first heard Bush voice his anti-gay beliefs to the public.

“It was a slap in the face.” Steven Levine is remembering that day in 2006 when President George W. Bush took the stage in a small-town school gym in Indiana. It was October 28, right before the midterm elections, and Levine was a 22-year-old White House advance aide. He’d been camped out in Sellersburg all week, working to get the details just right for Bush’s campaign rally. The flags hung just so, the big presidential seal on the podium. Then Bush started talking, his standard stump speech about taxes and supporting the troops. But a new applause line took Levine by surprise. “Just this week in New Jersey,” the president said, “another activist court issued a ruling that raises doubt about the institution of marriage. We believe that marriage is the union between a man and a woman, and should be defended. I will continue to appoint judges who strictly interpret the law and not legislate from the bench.”

The crowd loved it.

Levine was crushed.

Unsurprisingly, Levine stayed with Bush until the very end. His one act of “protest”? “Telling his bosses he refused to work advance for future campaign events.”

Back in Washington, Levine says, “I told the folks in the [White House] advance office that I couldn’t do that anymore. … I told them why. These are my friends.”

The article, as Right Wing Watch and Dan Savage’s Slog point out, tries to re-write history.

“George W. Bush started out as perhaps the most gay-friendly Republican president ever,” Politico claims.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. It’s doubtful he actually was, given his born-again Christian evangelical claims.

But then, there’s this revelation — of just how ridiculously in denial Bush’s gay staffers really were.

Although former staffers say they never believed Bush personally had anything against gay people, many still experienced episodes of cognitive dissonance, especially when the president went into campaign mode—and all of sudden started pushing for the constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

Jeff Berkowitz was in his RNC office in February 2004 when Bush first backed the amendment during a White House speech. “This was something I didn’t agree with and didn’t know was coming,” he says now. He sat at his desk for what felt like an hour thinking: “What do I do? Do I resign in protest? What was the point? I wasn’t on the reelect because I thought Bush was good on marriage equality. It was because he was going to kill terrorists and was good on economic issues.” Besides, Berkowitz believed Bush’s Democratic rival John Kerry, who did not, in fact, support gay marriage in that campaign, was no better on gay rights.

Berkowitz was wrong.

John Kerry in 1996 voted for ENDA and against DOMA. In 2000 and 2002 he voted for hate crimes legislation. And later, in 2006, he voted against a bill outlawing same-sex marriage. He also voted to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and in 2102 to re-authorize the Violence Against Women Act, which included protections for LGBT people.

Ken Mehlman at some point apologized for supporting and enabling the anti-gay marriage amendments and bans. 

Will anyone other gay Republicans apologize? How about President Bush?

 

Image: Wikimedia