Bush Flips and Flops on Constitutional Amendment Banning Same-Sex Marriage

January 20, 2005

By Lisa Weiner-Mahfuz, Senior Field Organizer

The White House is busy mopping up George W. Bush's latest flip-flop. This time, Bush contradicted himself on his plan for pushing a constitutional amendment to define marriage as solely between a man and a woman.

On Jan. 14 the Democratic Party launched a petition urging White House to abandon its plan for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage and to stop House Majority Leader Tom Delay from "discriminating against Americans."

In Pride at the Polls, a newsletter delivered to 100,000 party supporters, the Democrats also called Bush on the carpet for his pre-election flip-flop on civil unions. "Bush can't have it both ways, supporting an amendment that takes away our rights while saying he wants to leave it up to the states. It is time for Bush to move America forward and come out publicly against this amendment."

Then on Sunday, Bush was quoted in a Washington Post article as saying "The point is, is that senators have made it clear that so long as DOMA [the Defense of Marriage Act] is deemed constitutional, nothing will happen. I'd take that admonition seriously."

Just hours after the Post hit newsstands, the right wing went into overdrive. According to one White House employee the switchboard at the White House "lit up like a Christmas tree" shortly after the Post article hit streets. This prompted the Bush PR machine to work the Sunday talk show circuit in an effort to "clarify" the President's position.

In interviews on Sunday on television news programs, Dan Bartlett, Bush's counselor, said the president was referring in the Post interview only to the reality of legislative vote counting and was not suggesting that his support for the amendment had diminished.

"What the president was speaking to was some of the legislative realities in the United States Senate," Bartlett said. "As you know, it requires 67 votes in the United States Senate for a constitutional amendment to move forward. That's a very high bar. What we learned through the debate last year is that many members of the Senate believe that the Defense of Marriage Act first must be overturned or challenged before we take the next step of a constitutional amendment."

Later Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., said on FOX, "I can tell you, I'm not going to break faith with social conservatives, and I know the president won't either."

Speaker of the House Tom DeLay, R-Texas, has gone on record by stating that he wants the amendment approved. "We will come back and come back until this is passed."

This is not the first time Bush has sent out conflicting statements on same-sex relationships. In the days leading up to the election, Bush said in an interview with ABC that he didn't think "we should deny people rights to a civil union [or] a legal arrangement if that's what a state chooses to do."

NOW President Kim Gandy said, "This is a classic George Bush flip-flop, but in the end, he stands for discrimination toward women, LGBT people, people of color, poor people and all marginalized communities. We must continue to fight for justice and equality for all."