Ford's House saved by gay guys

[Daniel]

You many have, like me, watched some of this past week's funeral services for former President Gerald Ford. So this item caught me eye today.

http://www.gaycitynews.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17671036&BRD=2729&PAG=461&dept_id=568857&rfi=6

Ford Boyhood Home Rescued by Gay Couple
By: ANDY HUMM
01/04/2007
The childhood home of Gerald Ford in Grand Rapids was saved by a gay couple who became friends with the late president and his wife, Betty, the Wall Street Journal reported. Tim England and Rob Kent bought the dilapidated house in 1991, did extensive restorations, and eventually got it declared a national and state historic site in 1994.

President and Mrs. Ford visited the house earlier in 1994 and England said the ex-president "turned into a child" as he toured it and reminisced. He said that Mrs. Ford told him, "You will never know what this means to my Jerry."

[BenL]

Bay Windows, the Boston LGBT newspaper, had two quotes about President Ford in its most recent issue. Oh, for Republicans like him, described as the last of the moderate Republicans. The quotes were in the paper's "so they say" column:

http://www.baywindows.com/ME2/Audiences/dirmod.asp?sid=008EC9FBCFF24AD18614290016BE1303&nm=Current+Issue&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&AudID=0813BC739F2044E5A03DCF2DE3FDF7C9&tier=4&id=390FC53FB3D64CBD9C2A4352885D7361

"He asked me if we would face schism after we discussed the various issues we would consider, particularly concerns about human sexuality and the leadership of women. He said that he did not think they should be divisive for anyone who lived by the great commandments and the great commission to love God and to love neighbor.”

— Episcopal minister Robert G. Certain, President Gerald Ford’s pastor at St. Margaret’s Church in Palm Desert, Calif., delivering a homily at the Washington memorial service for the late president, Associated Press, Jan. 2.


“Pleasantly surprised by how comfortable Ford was talking about gay issues – not a trait I’ve found in many politicians – I asked whether the federal government ought to treat gay couples the same as married heterosexuals. ‘I think they ought to be treated equally. Period,’ Ford replied.”

— Openly gay columnist Deb Price on her 2001 interview with the late President Gerald Ford in which he stated his support for providing Social Security, tax, and other federal benefits to same-sex couples, Detroit News, Jan. 2.

[Daniel]

Benl- thanks for the info.

For those not old enough to remember, a gay man saved then President Ford from being shot.

The Gay Man That Saved The President’s Life: A Story That Needs To Be Told

http://thesnapblog.blogspot.com/2006/03/gay-man-that-saved-presidents-life.html

And there has been speculation that Gerald Ford's son- Steven- is gay.

http://boyculture.typepad.com/boy_culture/2006/12/new_yorker_to_g.html

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/vine/showthread.php?t=528424

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2006_12/010464.php
One of Ford's sons is gay, which may or may not explain his pro-gay position.

Ford was a typical partisan during his House days. He was a kind of bromide-spouting, boosterish, Rotary Club Republican. What changed is that Republicans got the "fever" during the late 70s - extreme religiosity and/or ideology - and morphed into the grotesquerie of today. Ford was not the last of the GOP pragmatist presidents (George HW Bush has that honor), but he's the last Republican president who presided over a party that was still largely sane.

Posted by: walt on December 27, 2006 at 9:32 AM | PERMALINK

This would explain why Gerald Ford made efforts to make homosexulaity a nonissue in the Republican party.

http://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=22254
There also were persistent rumors within the community that one of the president's sons, Steven, was gay.

Steven skipped college and eventually made his way to Hollywood, where he has had a journeyman's career as an actor, appearing for six years on the daytime soap "The Young and the Restless" and in dozens of films and television episodes. And, there may have been something to those gay rumors as the actor, now 50, has never married.

Whether Gerald Ford acted out of personal concerns or not, he did do the right thing.

http://www.exgaywatch.com/blog/index.html
In March 2002 the former President joined the advisory board of the Republican Unity Coalition, a gay-straight alliance whose goal is "making homosexuality a 'non-issue' for the Republican Party" and whose members and friends include senators, congressmen, governors, mayors, and other political operatives and intellectuals.