Laura Bush and Dick Cheney To Feature In Same-Sex Marriage Campaign

Former first lady Laura Bush and ex-Vice President Dick Cheney are to feature in a new campaign in America to promote same-sex marriage.

Laura Bush, wife of George Bush (junior) and Dick Cheney – who was Vice President to Bush – are amongst those to feature in a new campaign by Respect for Marriage Coalition. The new campaign will feature print adverts as well as television commercials on cable stations.

The print adverts will run in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal and the adverts will highlight that support for gay marriage lies on both sides of the political divide; Republican and Democrat.

Although high profile Republicans such as Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum are opposed to gay marriage – and wish to change the Federal law to ban it outright – there are those within the Republican party which support same-sex marriage. The new adverts will highlight that support for gay and lesbian couples comes from Republicans as well as Democrats.

While the television adverts will not feature new interviews they will feature clips of Laura Bush and Dick Cheney discussing same-sex relationships. In one ad Laura Bush is quoted as saying “When couples are committed to each other and love each other, then they ought to have the same sort of rights that everyone has.”

In America the states of Iowa, New York, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine, Maryland and Washington have all introduced same-sex marriage. The states of Washington, Maine and Maryland all voted to do so last year. Other states in America offer gay and lesbian couples civil partnerships instead of marriage. In some states though gay marriage is banned such as in Minnesota and California.

Last year President Barack Obama formally came out in support of same-sex marriage. Obama’s declaration came after Vice President Joe Biden gave his public backing for allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry.