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(Washington) President Bush reportedly will hold a Rose Garden press conference on June 5 to press Congress to enact the so-called Federal Marriage Amendment that would ban same-sex marriage.
The conservative Weekly Standard reports that Bush will gather supporters of the amendment behind him as he makes his pitch.
"President Bush is once again placating extremists and pushing discrimination when he should be finding solutions for the real challenges facing Americans," Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese told 365Gay.com. "It's despicable that he would use this opportunity and the spotlight of the Rose Garden not to unite the country, but to advocate discriminatory and divisive politics."
June 5 is the same day that the proposed amendment will be debated in the Senate.
The president has rarely mentioned the proposed amendment since 2004 when it failed to get enough votes to proceed. The measure was reintroduced this year.
The proposed amendment would bar same-sex couples from marrying, block courts and state legislatures allowing gay marriage, nullify marriages already performed in Massachusetts - the only state in the country where they are currently legal - and according to critics possibly block civil unions and override domestic partner laws.
The amendment was introduced by Senator Wayne Allard and reads: "Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution, nor the constitution of any State, shall be construed to require that marriage or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon any union other than the union of a man and a woman."
While most Republicans were solidly behind the amendment in 2004 the party is deeply divided this time. Earlier this month First Lady Laura Bush said the marriage issue should not be used as an election tool.
The Human Rights Campaign recently came under criticism for endorsing the re-election of Republican Rep. Mary Bono (Calif.). But the organization says Bono is illustrative of moderate Republicans who support LGBT issues.
Bono voted against the marriage amendment in 2004 and has announced her opposition to reintroducing it. She also supported LGBT inclusion in hate crime law and worked to see its passage in the House, although the measure later died in the Senate.
Of reports that one man in Palm Springs was so angry that Bono had been endorsed over a Democrat he changed his will removing the HRC as a beneficiary, the group says it was never informed it had been in the will in the first place.
HRC spokesperson Jay Smith Brown tells 365Gay.com that the organization had interviewed Bono's Democratic challenger, David M. Roth, disputing claims by Roth that he had never been contacted.
In the past HRC on rare occasions has endorsed two candidates in any one race but Brown would say only that in Ross's case no such decision has yet been reached.
"We will continue to evaluate candidates up to election day and that has been our process all along," said Brown.
©365Gay.com 2006
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