This morning I noticed that the Onion had
an item in their
faux Person-in-the-Street feature, based on a report that former President George W. Bush had offered to officiate at a lesbian wedding in 2013, but had to back out because of a scheduling conflict.
Ironically, the Onion is pretty reliable in its references to actual news (as opposed to the satire it spins from it), so I looked around and decided to look at what the Daily Caller (one of RWA1's preferred sources)
had to say about the report. It turned out to be only the barest aside in
a Boston Globe piece about Dubya's brother Jeb, and for what it's worth, a Bush spokesman told the Washington Post that "While President Bush is indeed friends with Bonnie and Helen, he doesn’t recall making such an offer." Which is a rather mild denial; it might well be true (that Bush doesn't recall it). It's a sign of how much has changed, that rather than declare his eternal opposition to the destruction of holy matrimony by Teh Gay, Bush chooses not to remember anything about it. I even believe that if he did offer and then withdrew, it really was because of a scheduling conflict, even if it was really a hangover.
I indulged in some snark on Facebook about the story, declaring that obviously Dubya isn't really a conservative after all! I think he was just misled by his
advisors when he
said he opposed same-sex marriage, just like
Barack was. (Or maybe not -- Obama
denied the report.) For that matter,
Dick Cheney also pretended to oppose same-sex marriage while he was VPOTUS (
via). So they were just playing eleven-dimensional chess with the Christian right! Bush did
appoint numerous openly gay Republicans to important posts, after all. I bet if Bush could have had just one more term, he'd have shown his true colors as the progressive social reformer he really is ... As so often happens, reality tends to leave satire behind it, gasping in the dust.
Incidentally, the Most Liberal Pope Evar
continues to proclaim his inclusive message of love and inclusion.
