Former first lady Laura Bush has disassociated herself from the Respect for Marriage Coalition campaign for gay rights.
“Mrs. Bush did not approve of her inclusion in this advertisement nor is she associated in any way with the group that made the ad,” Anne MacDonald, a spokeswoman for the former first lady, said in a statement. “When she became aware of the advertisement Tuesday night, we requested that the group remove her from it.”
In the 30-second video advertisement, coined “Leadership,” the producers used a clip from a May 2010 interview with Larry King where Mrs. Bush told him that she supports rights for gay people.
“When couples are committed, they ought to have, I think, the same sort of rights that everyone has,” she said to King.
Mrs. Bush co-stars in the pro-gay marriage advertisement with former George W. Bush administration power players, former Vice President Dick Cheney and former Secretary of State Colin Powell. The producers did not ask their permission, either.
Cheney’s spokesperson has not yet commented on the advertisement, according to CNN. His comments do not seem to directly point to gay marriage, but he made them in the context of that type of union in 2009. Cheney’s daughter married her longtime partner in Washington D.C. in June 2012.
“Freedom means freedom for everyone,” he said.
“His remarks are in the public domain, and we have not asked them to remove it,” Powell’s spokesperson said of the former Secretary of State’s comments.
Powell’s comments are taken from an interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN’s “The Situation Room.” “Allowing them to live together with the protection of law, it seems to me is the way we should be moving in this country,” Powell said.
At the end of the commercial, Respect for Marriage Coalition features part of President Barack Obama’s 2013 inaugural address, when he refers to equality for all.
The Respect for Marriage Coalition has scheduled full-page print advertisements to appear in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Times, and online.
