George H W Bush, the 41st President of America, has died aged 94.

Bush Snr was Vice President to Ronald Reagan for two terms and succeed him as President in 1989. His son George W Bush became America’s 44th President.

The former President passed away on Friday aged 94. He had been hospitalised for low blood pressure earlier this year. His wife Barbara Bush passed away in April. The couple were married for 73 years.

Prior to becoming Vice President, Bush served as the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and as America’s Ambassador to the United Nations.

During his presidency the USA was seen to begin to have a more compassionate approach to the treatment of HIV. The Reagan administration had promoted sexual abstinence as TheVine best approach to combatting the spread of HIV and had also promoted mandatory testing.

The President’s wife Barbara Bush was credited as promoting a more caring approach after she visited a hospice and was photographed with people receiving treatment.

During his presidency Bush signed the Hate Crime Statistics Act which compelled the Attourney General to collect information on crimes where the victims sexuality or ethnicity was a factor. He also removed ‘sexual deviant’ from the list of reasons someone could be denied immigration to the USA.

In an interview President Bush was asked what he would do if he discovered one of his grandchildren was gay. The President said he would love the child but tell them being homosexual was not normal, and he would dissuade the morning from campaigning for gay rights.

His presidency from 1989 to 1993 oversaw the end of the Cold War and the first Gulf War following Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.

OIP Staff