Then the Millennium March on Washington (MMOW), headed up by the Lesbian & Gay Rights Lobby's Dianne Hardy-Garcia, teamed up with the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) to turn the gathering in Washington, D.C. into a political rally for the Democrats. Gay friendly President Bill Clinton addressed the hundreds of thousands on the nation's west mall via television. So, too, did Al Gore.
Protecting "The Family"
Two anti-gay adoption bills were introduced last session in the Texas Legislature. The Lesbian Gay Rights Lobby of Texas organized a "March for our Families" and over 6,000 protestors made their way down Congress Avenue to the state capital. The next day, Governor Bush said he opposed gay adoptions and that children are best raised in a family with a married man and a married woman.
The Texas Log Cabin Republicans have continually tried to forge a relationship with the Republican leadership in Texas. Before Bush was a national contender, LCR Austin met with elected officials, but never with Bush. But when national attention turned to the Governor when he began his bid in earnest, Log Cabin's national leadership attempted on several occasions to meet with Bush's campaign to discuss gay and lesbian equality. Bush took the opportunity on several nationally broadcast television shows to say that he didn't believe in pitting one group against another, and meeting with LCR would not be 'good for the people'. After the mainstream media made Bush's stance news, combined with coverage of the Log Cabin group banned from attending the Texas Republican Convention, Bush agreed to meet with a handful of carefully selected gay republicans.
Democrats, said, "George W. Bush opposes every single public policy proposal aimed at ending prejudice against gays and lesbians. Log Cabin claims to be a gay rights organization that opposes discrimination against gays and lesbians, and for them to support placing the entire executive branch, as well as control over federal judicial appointments, into the hands of a candidate who doesn't even think gays and lesbians should raise children and who supports criminalizing the private sexual activity of gay and lesbian adults is flatly indefensible."
HIV and AIDS
Since Bush took office as Texas governor, 9,921 Texans have died of AIDS and 19,532 new cases of HIV have been diagnosed. Texas ranks fourth in the country - behind New York, California and Florida - for reported AIDS cases. During his governorship, Bush has never said the word AIDS publicly in either a health, social or policy statement, and numerous attempts to retrieve any contradiction to this claim from the Bush camp have yielded no results.
A recent story by Cliff Rothman, a writer reported Bush was the only governor in the country who ignored an urgent letter in September from Children Uniting Nations chairwoman Daphna Ziman for feedback or resources regarding the AIDS epidemic in Africa. "Forty nine governors responded, including his brother," said Ziman, who just received the global peace and tolerance lifetime achievement award from the Friends of the U.N., along with Mikhail Gorbachev. "I mean, it's a crisis for everyone. Ten million children with AIDS, can you imagine? One governor helped to arrange the shipment of 100,000 basketballs. Gray Davis offered me the support from the medical facilities at UCLA. We sent Bush the letter twice. A letter and a fax. We didn't want to take a chance."
"George Bush was a coward in the last legislative session in killing Texas' Hate Crimes Act. Now we are almost two weeks away from a national election, and George Bush needs to answer the question to the American people of where he stands on hate crimes," said Maxey. "Judy Shepard has been going around he country, in person, and in radio and print ads, to ask Bush a simple question - whether or not he supports a federal hate crimes act that includes sexual orientation."
Bush has refused to answer the question. "The American people deserve an answer," said John Borgman, of Austin. "George Bush is a very clever fellow, but if you look at the facts, you will see that he is not supportive of hate crimes or lesbian and gay rights in general," he said. "He tries to pass himself off as compassionate, but he definitely is not." "George Bush cannot claim to be a person who will bring this country together when he is a person who stands to the side of violence and bigotry," said Maxey. "He needs to answer the question on whether he will join with us, the American people, to put a stop to it. You do that with bold leadership and a federal hate crimes statute that protects all people, including gays and lesbians."
Conservatively estimated, more than 360,000 gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender voters will go to the polls in Texas in November. That's larger than the presidential election margin of victory here in 1968, 1976, and 1992. When Bill Clinton defeated George Bush here in 1992, for example, he did so by only 90,632 votes- about a fourth of the number of GLBT voters expected at the polls in the fall. As the current race for the presidency is shaping up to be a close contest, it is obvious that more than 360,000 votes could make a significant difference in the state in 2000.
According to Lisa Belsanti at California Alliance for Pride and Equality (CAPE), if Bush is elected, there is much the gay community can lose. "We have become very complacent, and I hope gays and lesbians are feeling this urgent sense of unrest. Hopefully Gore will squeak through and we can start to take things for granted again."
Information found in Texas Triangle and Plant Out
Please fell free to visit the sites below to learn more about Bush and Gore. Please remember that each of their sites well favor that person. Just because the promise it don’t mean they will do it. Read about their actions in the past with issues. Type in Lesbian or Gay in the websites search box and see for yourself you supports gays and lesbians.
http://www.algore2000.com/
http://www.georgewbush.com/
