Barbara Bush, the daughter of George W. Bush, has filmed a public service announcement in support of gay marriage in New York.
It's the first notable foray into domestic politics for the presidential daughter, who is also the president of Global Health Corps, a non-profit offering fellowships in global health care systems, and previously interned for the International Pediatrics AIDS Initiative at Houston's Baylor College of Medicine.
In the brief spot by the Human Rights Campaign, Bush speaks directly to the camera with a simple message, noting that "New York is about fairness and equality and everyone should have the right to marry the person that they love," before asking the viewer to "join us."
It's a statement that's more powerful because of her identity and the surprise break with the policies of her father, who supported a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as between a man and a woman.
A similar ad featuring Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gives much more detail, comparing the fight to the anti-miscegenation laws in his childhood Virginia and calling the prohibition on gay marriage "the last vestige of institutionalized bigotry in America."
According to The New York Times, Bush has long "surrounded herself with gay friends," both in her current life at New York and as an undergraduate at Yale during her father's presidency.
But she isn't the first family member to publicly endorse gay marriage. Last May, her mother, former First Lady Laura Bush, seemed to support gay marriage when speaking on Larry King Live.
"When couples are committed to each other and love each other they ought to have, I think, the same sort of rights that everyone has," she said, adding she believes gay marriage will eventually be legalized.
Will Jenna Bush Hager be next? We'll see.
Watch Barbara Bush's ad below:
