In his newly-released e-book, “Reply All,” Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush shares a tense email exchange over same-sex marriage with a man described by the former Florida governor as “a gay friend.” That’s a term the now 50-year-old Xavier Cortada, the gay friend in question, can’t dispute. But it doesn’t mean Bush will be getting his vote.
“I can separate my friendship from my politics,” Cortada told msnbc during a phone interview Wednesday. “Which is why I’m not voting for my friend, Jeb Bush.”
A longtime supporter of so-called “traditional” marriage, Bush has said repeatedly that he disagrees with the recent Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex nuptials across the nation. But the new memoir of his governorship, as told through dozens of email exchanges like the one with Cortada, offers a little more insight into his enduring opposition to same-sex marriage.
Eleven years ago, on March 3, 2004, Cortada reached out to then-Gov. Bush about his support for a constitutional amendment limiting marriage to unions between one man and one woman. The effort failed at the federal level, but ballot initiatives to ban same-sex marriage in nearly a dozen states helped energize social conservatives and, ultimately, reelect Bush’s brother, President George W. Bush.
“Today, I am feeling particularly denied and particularly unequal,” wrote Cortada, a Miami-based artist, in the 2004 email to Bush. “My life partner, Juan Carlos, and I have been together for eight years and are being denied rights afforded to others who can legally marry. Worst, I feel suffocated — living in a society where liberty evaporates with every attack on people who happen to be gay — and I see it can only get worse as this debate rages on.”
“The problem is not just the homophobia and violence (remember Matthew Shepard?) that this marginalization generates,” Cortada continued in the email, “but also the image that is generated in society at large: Gays and lesbians as second class citizens. For our beloved Country this would mean that ‘all are equal, but some are more equal than others.’ Nothing can be more threatening to a democracy.”
In his reply, Bush said that he was “sensitive” to Cortada’s position but respectfully disagreed.
“If there is discrimination, there are remedies,” wrote Bush. “The cases of violence against gay and lesbians are unconscionable and the laws in Florida exist to bring justice. Your relationship with Juan Carlos can be made more permanent through contractual obligations that set forth asset disposition and other issues.”
“However,” Bush concluded, “I don’t believe that your relationship should be afforded the same status in the law as a man and woman agreeing to marraige [sic.] The institution of marraige [sic] is under attack in our society and it needs to be strengthened. This does not have to be at the expense of other kinds of relationships but in support of the most important institution in our society.”
Looking back, Cortada told msnbc that Bush’s response was “entirely predictable.” Less clear, however, is what Bush hopes to accomplish now by including these particular emails in his e-book.
In a statement, Bush spokesperson Allie Brandenburger called the memoir “a different kind of political book.”
“Jeb tried to represent all the major issues he faced as Governor, and tell people about them through emails he sent at the time,” Brandenburger told msnbc. “Some of these emails are touching, others might be a bit embarrassing, but overall it shows an engaged conservative leader who wanted to get things done. The Xavier email was representative of the conversations he was having about the issue at the time.”









