When Jeb Bush resigned from all board positions to ready himself for a 2016 presidential bid, two prescient gay men from Oregon were ready. CJ Phillips and Charlie Rainwater, who describe themselves as a “bear couple,” bought the domain JebBushforPresident.com in 2008, and are planning to use it to promote LGBT issues.
“We're a couple of high tech bears who both work in the microprocessor design industry,” explain Phillips and Rainwater on their joint personal website. “[Yes,] you could say we're just a couple of nerds.”
So how did they think of claiming the domain so early on? Well, the anti-LGBT record of presidential hopeful Bush stretches back—he famously wrote in a 1994 opinion piece, “[Should] sodomy by elevated to the same constitutional status as race and religion? My answer is No.”
“We didn’t see LGBT equality getting any better, and we felt said rights would more than likely still be in the spotlight in the run up for the next several election cycles,” Phillips explained to Business Insider. “Jeb’s name was already being bandied about in the news as a potential presidential candidate, and we felt sure he’d be running in a future election.”
While Jeb Bush for President is still under construction, if you visit the site today, you’ll encounter a cheerful message overlaid on what could be bear paw prints:
Hi there, and welcome to the page. CJ and Charlie are two guys in a great relationship who are looking to inform our friends and family about some of the challenges we face being part of the LGBT community. This page is intended to prompt understanding, insight, and healthy dialogue in the ever changing landscape of civil rights and social justice. Now we just need to find some time!
They’ve already had several offers to buy the domain, from the politically to the personally motivated—one person wanted to buy the domain as a birthday present to a friend.
And so, site has already achieved the seemingly impossible, for which Jeb Bush has opined—it seems “the good people on all sides of the gay and lesbian marriage issue” have come together in their curiosity for what could come next.
Via the dot429.com
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