Mar 04, 2005  |  By: Mubarak Dahi  | COMMENTS     

because he was afraid of alienating more secular voters.

At the time, he even hesitated about meetings with prominent Christian evangelical leaders. When his aides made such meetings and appointments for him, he cautioned that he wanted those interactions to be limited, and not for public consumption.

It's useful to look at Bush's starting points, compare them to where he is today, and ask how and why he veered so strongly in the direction he did. In the beginning, it seems he was reluctant to be virulently anti-gay, and he was reluctant to be seen as too closely tied to the Christian right.

History has taken a different path: Bush probably owes his re-election to his anti-gay marriage crusade, and he unabashedly courted the right-wing Christians in the last election.

Conservative Christians are not shy about saying that they now feel Bush "owes" them political influence. Gays, on the other hand, are more shut out than ever from the Bush White House. Our political leaders need to ask where Bush's heart now lies on gay rights.

Is he as much of a despot as his policies and political tactics make him appear to be? Or is he actually less anti-gay than most of us believe? What are the chances, if any, of swaying him back to a more favorable public stand on gay and lesbian issues during his next four years in office?

And how can we as a group combat the political influence the religious right now exerts over the president when it comes to gay rights?