LeftOut

Crouching Bigot, Hidden Faggot
Bush’s appointment of an openly gay person:
okenism or compassionate conservatism?
by Daryl Moore

I suppose we should all be excited that Bush is the first Republican president to appoint an openly gay or lesbian person to a White House position. No doubt, gay Republicans will use this appointment to congratulate themselves for supporting a kinder, gentler Republican on gay and lesbian issues. They will use it as an exclamation point to their I-told-you-so statements. "I told you he wasn’t homophobic!" "I told you he cares about AIDS!" "I told you we would get a place at the table!"

Well, maybe they’re right. And maybe they’re not.

Call me cynical, but I’m just not convinced that Bush’s appointment of Scott Evertz to run the White House Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP) is anything other than tokenism. We now have a token homosexual who is allegedly going to be the Bush go-to person on AIDS policy. How profound. "Dubya" put a fag in charge of AIDS policy, something we know he’s compassionately conservative about.

I might be excited about Dubya’s appointment had the circumstances leading up to it been different. But it was just two months ago, on January 25, that Bush floated the idea of shutting down ONAP altogether. Indeed, on February 7, USA Today published a story in which Andrew Card, President Bush’s chief of staff, said the decision to close ONAP had already been made.

Only after a public outcry opposing the idea did Ari Fleischer, Bush’s press secretary, take to the air announcing that "Card had been mistaken," and promising that "we’re concerned about AIDS inside our White House." (Right, but what about outside the White House?)

Now we’re supposed to be excited that Bush appointed an openly gay person to head a White House office that is so important he originally wanted to shut it down. Talk about throwing the gay and lesbian community a bone.

I can just imagine how the conversation between Bush and his Veep went on an issue that is near and dear to Dubya’s heart:

W: Boy, Dick, I really stepped in it this time when I talked about closing down that AIDS office. What a mess. I didn’t realize so many people cared about AIDS. I don’t even know anybody who has it.

VP: Well, Mr. President, don’t fret. We’ll fix it. We’ll keep the AIDS office open and we’ll appoint a gay person to run it. That’ll placate the gay community.

W: But, Dick, I don’t know any gay people to appoint . . . except your daughter Mary and that guy that designed Laura’s inaugural gown. And what’s "placate"?

VP: Never mind, Mr. President. I’ve already talked to Mary about this. She knows this gay, pro-life Catholic from Wisconsin, Scott Evertz. Remember, you met him in Austin last year when you met with those 12 gay guys to keep the Log Cabin Republicans from endorsing McCain.

W: Oh yeah. What a meeting. I’ve never felt so underdressed in all my life. Which one was he?

VP: He was the one who said he thought that since the Boy Scouts of America is a private organization, it should be allowed to discriminate against gays if it wants to.

W: Well, of course it should. What’s his name again?

VP: Scott Evertz.

W: Hmm. Whatever. Just fix it.

VP: Sure, Mr. President. It’s done.

I hope I’m wrong about how this happened. I hope my cynicism has pervaded my sense of political propriety. I also hope that Dubya’s intentions were pure, that Scott Evertz is not a token, and that more openly gay appointees are yet to come. Only time will tell. n