Bush gals to see gay vows
Erwin Gomez & James Packard invited Jenna and Barbara Bush (below) to wedding party.
When Washington-area beautician Erwin Gomez and his longtime partner James Packard celebrate their marital vows with 400 of their closest friends next month, two of Gomez's best customers will probably be in attendance: President Bush's twin daughters, Jenna and Barbara.
Yesterday, the 39-year-old Gomez - a makeup expert for the Elizabeth Arden shop in the D.C. suburb of Chevy Chase, Md. - told Lowdown that the First Twins have become devotees of his popular eyebrow waxes over the past few weeks.
And, Gomez added, Bush's daughters have expressed an enthusiastic desire to go to Gomez and Packard's Sept. 11 wedding celebration at their home in Laytonsville, Md.
"I gave them the party invitation, and they said, 'That sounds great, we'd love to come - it sounds like a lot of fun,'" Gomez said.
"The way they reacted, they were very open-minded."
Never mind that their father supports a constitutional ban of gay marriages.
Heterosexual marriage, Bush said in February, is "the most enduring human institution" and "cannot be severed from its cultural, religious and natural roots without weakening the good influence of society."
While Gomez holds the hard-carousing girls in high regard ("so casual and so real"), his disgust for their father's politics is obvious.
"I think it's wrong - he has no right to touch that," he said. "He's trying to change the freedom of America. ... History is repeating itself, just like blacks and Jews were discriminated against."
Gomez and Packard were "wed" last spring in San Francisco after Mayor Gavin Newsome issued them and scores of others a marriage license.
But the legality of such unions has been in question since the California Supreme Court last week declared that Newsome exceeded his authority in sanctioning gay marriages.
As for the Bush sisters, "I've done their eyebrows three times - they usually just call my cell and pop in," said Gomez, who also plucks and waxes the eyebrows of Saudi Princess Haifa.
Yesterday, the First Twins' spokeswoman, Susan Whitson, had only this to say: "At this point I cannot confirm that the twins are attending. I only comment on official campaign activities."
