Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from radiotopia.

My name is Jody Avergan.

This day, April 2000, presidential candidate George W Bush meets with a group known as the

Austin 12, a group of gay Republicans, to talk about how he can better reach LGBT-Q voters.

Afterwards, Bush declared that the interaction

had made him, quote, a better man.

The New York Times had referred to gay Republicans

as, quote, the tiniest sliver of his party's electorate but it was a

sliver that was getting a good amount of attention in the 2000 GOP primary all

the candidates like John McCain and Elizabeth Dole had extended olive branches to gay voters.

And this was the era, if you remember, were coming off of the 90s culture wars, and there was

talk of the Republican Party as a big tent and compassionate conservatism.

Of course the culture wars and the religious dynamics had not gone away and on questions

of policy like gay marriage, both parties still had a long, long way to go.

But it is a very fascinating moment, this visit between Bush and the Austin 12,

and we have the perfect guest joining us to discuss

Neil J. Young writer and historian and author of the new book

Coming Out Republican a history of the gay right. It is available right now so Neil

welcome to the show and congratulations on the new book.

Thank you and thank you so much for having me.

And I left out the most important part of your bio,

which is that Neil is one of the co-hosts of the brilliant podcast

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