Learn from History

"There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."

-President George W. Bush

It’s not often that I agree with President Bush – even when he gets the message a little mixed up.  But he’s right – the LGBT community shouldn’t be fooled into thinking that the GOP has their interests in mind this election.

There’s been a buzz in the LGBT community this week for a couple of reasons.  First, the Log Cabin Republicans officially endorsed Senator McCain and Governor Palin.  And then there’s the reports that Steve Schmidt from the McCain campaign met with the Log Cabins.  Sounds like progress?  Actually, that’s more like 2000 all over again.

A little refresher course:  On April 13, 2000, a group of LGBT republicans met with then-Texas Governor George Bush – a group that later came to be known as the Austin 12.  It’s worth noting that he was the first presumptive republican nominee to have a public meeting with members of the LGBT community. 

 Now, to be fair, Bush wasn’t always entirely against LGBT Americans.  He kept in place a Clinton non-discrimination policy for federal employees.  But pretty soon, people were looking ahead to 2004, and the president needed to get himself re-elected again.  This, of course, led to Congress considering, and the president supporting, a constitutional amendment to add discrimination into our founding document.  I speak, of course, about the Federal Marriage Amendment.

And that’s not the only thing.  For most of his time in office, President Bush has had a Republican Congress – one that essentially followed his every lead.  He could have asked for ENDA, he could have asked for Hate Crimes, he could have followed through on his promise to be a “compassionate conservative.”  He could have, but he did not.  It’s no wonder that the Log Cabins failed to endorse his re-election bid.

And here we are in 2008.  The same olive branches are being extended to LGBT Republicans.  They same hopes are being raised.   I think it might be worth repeating another phrase – although this one’s not from Bush:  “Those that cannot learn from the past are condemned to repeat its mistakes.”

If you look at their records and positions, it’s clear that Senator Obama is a friend to our community.  Senator McCain may have occasionally done the right thing, but now he is his party’s leader… and likely to continue with the same divisive politics.  LGBT Americans want change.  LGBT Americans deserve change.  And they’re only going to get that with Senators Obama and Biden.