http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/...64418-9f5b-40fa-b5c3-e2d262972328&k=30409&p=1 -- Cheney's daughter provokes mixed reaction on gay issues Sheldon Alberts CanWest News Service Wednesday, May 10, 2006 WASHINGTON - Throughout the last U.S. presidential election, Mary Cheney was known to American voters simply as Vice-President Dick Cheney's quiet gay daughter. No more. In a memoir published Tuesday, the 37-year-old lesbian describes a proposed constitutional ban on same-sex marriage as a "gross affront'' to gay Americans and reveals she almost quit the Republican campaign after President George W. Bush's endorsement of the legislation two years ago. But Cheney saves her harshest words for Bush's 2004 opponents, calling Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry a "son of a b****'' and his running mate, John Edwards, a "total slime'' for discussing her sexual orientation during nationally televised debates during the campaign. The 239-page autobiography has vaulted the publicity-shy political operative back into the Washington spotlight she's already appeared in a prime-time interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer and provoked mixed reviews from gay rights activists who are bracing for a Senate vote next month on the Republican-sponsored gay-marriage ban. "She is a little late to the party,'' said John Aravosis, a Washington gay-rights activist and political blogger. "For the longest time, Mary wouldn't speak. Now she gets a million-dollar book advance and suddenly she is speaking. It rings a little hollow.'' Cheney became a flashpoint for both sides in America's culture wars during the 2004 campaign after Bush endorsed the constitutional ban to shore up political support on the religious right. Cheney, who served as director of her father's re-election campaign, stayed silent when Aravosis launched a controversial Internet campaign DearMary.com pleading with her to denounce Bush. She stayed silent when Kerry, during a debate with Bush, responded to a question on whether homosexuality was a choice by telling the nation Dick Cheney had a daughter "who is a lesbian.'' And she bit her tongue when a Republican Senate candidate, Alan Keyes, accused her of ``selfish hedonism'' for living a homosexual lifestyle. But in her book, Cheney reveals she refused to attend Bush's 2004 State of the Union address after reading a draft copy of the speech that spoke of the need to defend the sanctity of marriage. When Bush later endorsed a constitutional amendment to expressly forbid gay marriage, Cheney "seriously considered packing up my office and heading home'' to the house she shared in Colorado with her longtime partner, Heather Poe. It "gave me a knot in the pit of my stomach to think of my candidate for president endorsing the federal marriage amendment,'' she writes. The gay marriage ban "would write discrimination into the constitution, our nation's most important and influential document,'' Cheney says in the book. "It is fundamentally wrong and a gross affront to gays and lesbians everywhere.'' In her interview with Diane Sawyer, Cheney said of Bush: "I think he's a very good man On these issues, he hasn't caught up.'' Cheney is less generous to Kerry and Edwards, who she accuses of "sleazy'' politics for mentioning she was gay during debates with Bush and her father. "John Kerry didn't 'out me', nor did he offend or attack me by calling me a lesbian. It wasn't a secret that I was gay, and I certainly couldn't be offended by the truth,'' she writes. ``What was offensive E was that he was obviously trying to use me and my sexual orientation for his own political gain.'' Sitting in the studio audience when Edwards mentioned her sexual orientation, Cheney said she looked at the vice-presidential candidate and mouthed the words"Go F*** Yourself'' a phrase her father had earlier employed against Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy. Cheney's book is being released in advance of a planned June 5 Senate vote on the gay-marriage ban. The measure is being opposed by several Republicans notably Senator John McCain, a potential 2008 presidential candidate but could help bolster the party's right-wing base before this year's mid-term elections. A group of gay Republican activists, the Log Cabin Republicans, said Cheney's outspoken opposition could help defeat the proposed ban. "Cheney's voice as the daughter of the vice-president is especially welcome as members (of Congress) debate a constitutional amendment aimed at marginalizing all gay and lesbian families,'' said Patrick Guerriero, president of the group. "Mary Cheney's conservative voice can help remind loyal Republicans this proposal violates basic conservative principles.'' Other long-time gay rights activists were less enthused about Cheney's entry into the debate. "So she is a lesbian who came out against the federal marriage amendment big deal. Am I supposed to be grateful?'' asked Robin Tyler, executive director of Equality Campaign. "She can't be cast as a gay saviour. She could have had the principle to withdraw from her father's campaign two years ago. Frankly, Mary Cheney still embarrasses me.''
Talk about a conflict of interest. That would be a tough set of choices to have to live with. Gay neo-con? A friend recalled going home early one summer evening, and, on inquiring the next morning about the rest of the night, being told, "We all stood around the piano. Roy sang three choruses of 'God Bless America,' got a hard on and went home to bed." http://www.maryellenmark.com/text/magazines/life/905W-000-035.html
Bush Administration to gays: Go **** yourselves, and then let us arrest you and put you in jail for sodomy.
Nothing like a million dollar advance to let us know how you really feel. Talk about basic conservative priciples.
It's a shame she helped Bush in the last election. She may be late, and she may be doing it for the money, but I'm still thankful she's speaking out, especially with the vote coming up. I hope she has some effect, even if it's small.
It was cheap of Kerry and Edwards to bring her up in debates for no reason. About as cheap as being a w**** to sell some books.
I thought it was pretty fair game actually. The Republicans are the ones who made such a big deal about gay people in the first place. It's not like he disrespected her by saying she was gay unless there's something wrong with bring gay. Why couldn't she be a hot lesbian?
what a surprise that she says something controversial about someone famous as her book is coming out, too little too late i think.
"I'm against gay marriage," Kerry said. "Everybody knows that...The president and I have the same position, fundamentally, on gay marriage. We do. Same position." http://instapundit.com/archives/017757.php http://instapundit.com/archives/018438.php
When did Kerry ever endorse a constitutional amendment to discriminate against gays like your boy GWB29?
