George Bush to anti-LGBT hate group: Your work improves lives
"Your work improves many lives and makes the world better."
“I commend your efforts to recognize the importance of families in building nations. Your work improves many lives and makes the world better.”
–Former President George W. Bush, in a letter obtained by the New York Times to the World Congress of Families. Bush wrote the letter after he was unable to attend a conference, where the group planned to honor him.
The Southern Poverty Law Center defines the World Congress of Families as a hate group. “WCF pursues an international anti-choice, anti-LGBTQ agenda, seeking to promote conservative ideologies — and codify these in regressive laws and policies — that dictate who has rights as ‘family,’ and who doesn’t,” the SPLC website states.
It continues: “WCF’s campaign for the ‘natural family’ is being used to promote new laws justifying the criminalization of LGBTQ people and abortion, effectively unleashing a torrent of destructive anti-choice and anti-LGBTQ legislation, persecution, and violence around the world.”
In an email, a Bush spokesman denied knowledge of the group’s anti-LGBT hatred. He claimed the letter was sent “because the group requested it…. Our knowledge of the group is limited to their work to encourage adoption.”
During the 2004 election, Bush and the Republican Party made same-sex marriage a wedge issue, leading to a raft of state constitutional amendments banning it. Former First Lady Laura Bush claimed in 2010 that she had asked Bush not to use same-sex marriage to win votes, as they had “a number” of gay friends.
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