"I'm Not Going to Kick Gays"
The New York Times reports "In Secretly Taped Conversations, Glimpses of the Future President", by David D. Kirkpatrick, about conversations between the then-governor-of-Texas, G.H.W. Bush, and his "old friend" Doug Wead, who secretly taped them. Wead shared some of those tapes recently with "a reporter".
Without further comment for now, here is a single, unedited excerpt from that story:
Early on, though, Mr. Bush appeared most worried that Christian conservatives would object to his determination not to criticize gay people. "I think he wants me to attack homosexuals," Mr. Bush said after meeting James Robison, a prominent evangelical minister in Texas.
But Mr. Bush said he did not intend to change his position. He said he told Mr. Robison: "Look, James, I got to tell you two things right off the bat. One, I'm not going to kick gays, because I'm a sinner. How can I differentiate sin?"
Later, he read aloud an aide's report from a convention of the Christian Coalition, a conservative political group: "This crowd uses gays as the enemy. It's hard to distinguish between fear of the homosexual political agenda and fear of homosexuality, however."
"This is an issue I have been trying to downplay," Mr. Bush said. "I think it is bad for Republicans to be kicking gays."