George W. Bush: champion of "gay rights".

"By supporting civil unions for gay couples--which, practically speaking, is the cutting-edge issue in the battle for equality--President Bush has become a leading advocate for gay rights," insisted Bush administration official Abner Mason in the December 21 issue of The Advocate, the leading "gay rights" journal. President Bush's support "has made it a lot easier for others to recognize civil unions, especially political leaders in [socially conservative] red states. If gays accept Bush's support and find ways to work with him, the 2004 election will mark a turning point in America's acceptance of gay relationships."

Mason is executive director of the AIDS Responsibility Project and chairman of the International Subcommittee for the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS. In his Advocate op-ed column, Mason also touted Mr. Bush's "support for the reauthorization of the Ryan White Act, which provides care for the poor and uninsured with HIV," and the "$15 billion, five-year Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief...." He urged homosexual activists to engage with the administration in "dialogue." Mason observes that Vermont Governor Howard Dean not long ago "was hailed as a hero" by homosexual activists for his support of "civil unions." "Only eight days before the election, Bush publicly embraced the Dean position, which was also Kerry's position," Mason points out. "The previously controversial--and in Dean's case 'heroic'--position of supporting civil unions was now that of the conservative president. Gays should have seen this announcement and the president's subsequent victory as a major breakthrough for gay rights in America."