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US gays vow to eject Bush
19/10/2004 09:48 - (SA)
Los Angeles - American gays, branded sinners by the Christian right, are waging an all-out battle to eject President George W Bush from power in the November 2 poll.
They are furious over Bush's support of a federal constitutional amendment that would have banned homosexual marriage, they are determined to prevent Bush from winning another four years in the White House.
And on the same day they pick a new president, residents of 11 US states will vote on state ballot initiatives aimed at banning gay matrimony.
Bush wants a constitutional amendment that would effectively ban same sex marriages.
The row over whether marriage should be defined as the exclusive union of a man and a woman came after Massachusetts state legalised gay marriage last November and the city of San Francisco in February defiantly began marrying homosexual couples to protest a state ban on the practice.
The gay wedding fever and the subsequent attempts to crack down on the wave widened an already uneasy gulf between the Bush administration and the country's estimated 28 million homosexuals.
"The whole gay community is against Bush and a lot of homosexuals who usually don't vote are going to vote this time," said Stan Stansbury, 55, a gay activist who lives in the liberal city of Berkeley, near San Francisco.
"I am more active than I have ever been in opposing Bush because this president is so right wing," said the liberal who distributes pamphlets and does internet lobbying to urge voters to defeat Bush on November 2.
Christian fundamental
"Bush is clearly courting the right wing Christian fundamentalists and they are the ones who damage gay rights and gay safety in this country," he fumed.
Gay community leaders said the community felt insulted by the stance of the Republican administration and party, which at its national convention in September adopted a conservative platform strongly rejecting calls for gay marriage and abortion rights.
Even Republican gays feel they have been marginalised by the administration's swing to the right.
"They've decided to use gay families as wedge issues across America in swing states and that is truly outrageous," said Patrick Guerriero, executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans, the party's leading gay bloc that has withdrawn its endorsement of Bush over the federal marriage amendment issue.
"Our members have been insulted by a campaign that has attempted to amend the constitution," he said.
The organisation last week filed a lawsuit challenging the US military over the controversial 1993 "Don't ask, don't tell" law that allows homosexuals to serve as soldiers provided they do not disclose their sexuality.
Bush's Democratic election rival, John Kerry, also opposes the constitutional amendment, but like Bush, he maintains marriage should be confined to a man and a woman.
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