tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14215370.post114054680301441160..comments2023-10-31T07:29:17.510-07:00Comments on = LNews =: Bush Gives $500 Million to Anti-Gay GroupsLNewsEditorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15516265929045096334noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14215370.post-1140546891367479702006-02-21T10:34:00.000-08:002006-02-21T10:34:00.000-08:00JIC Post:By Paul Johnson365Gay.com (Washington, DC...JIC Post:<BR/>By Paul Johnson<BR/>365Gay.com <BR/><BR/>(Washington, DC) With leaders of some of America's leading anti-gay marriage groups looking on President Bush has signed legislation giving $500 million to faith-based programs to promote and strengthen opposite-sex marriage.<BR/><BR/>The provision is part of the deficit reduction bill passed by Congress. "[It] allows faith-based groups that provide social services to receive federal funding without changing the way they hire," Bush noted at the White House signing ceremony.<BR/><BR/>Under the law faith-based groups are able to circumvent local and human rights laws that are supposed to protect LGBT workers.<BR/><BR/>Assistant Health and Human Services Secretary Wade Horn said that the financial windfall is not intended to specifically oppose same-sex marriage, although the President is a major supporter of a proposed amendment to ban gay marriage in the Constitution.<BR/><BR/>Horn said, however, that none of the money could be used to promote or support same-sex marriage in Massachusetts where gay marriage is legal.<BR/><BR/>The money also could not be used to support gay families where civil unions or domestic partnerships are allowed.<BR/><BR/>Horn cited the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act defines marriage as "the union of one man and woman" for all federal programs and services.<BR/><BR/>The White House's so-called marriage initiative has been under fire for the past year after it was learned the administration had secretly paid journalists to promote the plan.<BR/><BR/>Last October the US Attorney's office started an inquiry into the use by the Bush administration of anti-gay commentator Armstrong Williams to promote the initiative. <BR/><BR/>Last year 3675Gay.com reported that Williams was paid nearly a quarter million dollars by the White House to promote the President's agenda in his columns and nationally syndicated talk show. <BR/><BR/>Williams is a former aide to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. In a column following the 2004 election Williams linked gay rights advocates with organized crime.<BR/><BR/>"Despite the rhetoric that you hear from the homosexual Cosa Nostra, the lack of support for the gay marriage amendment has nothing to do with prejudice," he wrote.<BR/><BR/>After Williams was exposed two other cases came to light where the administration hired journalists to promote its agenda in the guise of unbiased commentary and news.<BR/><BR/>Syndicated conservative columnists Maggie Gallagher and Michael McManus were paid by the administration to promote the marriage initiative.<BR/><BR/>In 2003 Gallagher testified before a Senate subcommittee in support of a constitutional ban on gay marriage but failed to mention she was on the White House payroll. <BR/><BR/>McManus, whose syndicated column, "Ethics & Religion," appeared in 50 newspapers, was hired as a subcontractor by the Department of Health and Human Services.LNewsEditorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15516265929045096334noreply@blogger.com