Colorado blogger Dave Cullen, writing in Salon Mag, on the whole Cheney-lesbian-daughter-gate affair:
First, let's dispense with the comic aspects of the parental indignation:
# Mary Cheney has been happily out of the closet for at least a decade, so John Kerry was hardly dragging her out against her will.
# She spent the late '90s working as a veritable professional lesbian, as gay and lesbian corporate relations manager for Coors Brewing Co.
# Dick Cheney himself has been using her sexuality on the campaign trail. Click here to watch a Human Rights Campaign ad with him on the stump on Aug. 24, 2004: "Lynne and I have a gay daughter ... "
[...]
But they just don't get it. Much of the gay population is incensed. At the media.
Let's get one thing straight. It is not an insult to call a proudly public lesbian a lesbian. It's an insult to gasp when someone calls her a lesbian. That's how all the gays I have spoken to the past 24 hours perceived the press response. You're embarrassed for us. And it's infuriating.
Consider the way a paraplegic or a blind person feels when you act just a little too sympathetic about their "plight." We don't want your pity! Can you see how insulting it is?
The only thing offensive about Kerry's statement to us gay people was that he had to pause mid-sentence and gulp and sputter the terrifying word out: "Dick Cheney's daughter, who is ... a lesbian ..."
Posted by Walter at October 16, 2004 10:19 AMDave misses the point, which is not that Mary Cheney is gay, but rather that Kerry's mention of her in a debate agains Bush -- when his avowed position is that he, too, claims to be against gay marriage -- was calculated (to do what exactly, I'm not sure), cynical, and irrelevant to the question.
Think about it. What Kerry said, essentially, was this: "We are all God's children. Mary Cheney is just being who she is. There's nothing wrong with that. Which is why, if elected, I wouldn't allow her to get married, either."
Huh?
Re: Cheney using his daughter on the stump...Well, first, it's his daughter. And second, my understanding is, Cheney's invocation of his daughter's sexual preference was in response to a question asked about her.
Posted by: Jeff G at October 16, 2004 11:33 AMKerry is not saying he wouldn't allow her to get married. He thinks gay marriage is a state issue, is for full civil partership benefits and against the FMA. These facts are conveniently overlooked.
Posted by: Curious Stranger at October 17, 2004 12:33 AMKerry says he is against gay marriage (which, incidentally, I doubt -- but he needs to be careful not to alienate a lot of black voters, the bulk of whom poll against gay marriage).
I think almost EVERYONE would be happy were gay marriage simply a state issue, but the Mass Supreme Court has shown that such will not be the case -- that a slim one vote majority in the court of a state whose population is against gay marriage by a significant majority is enough to overrule the will of the citizenry. Which is the symbolic impetus behind the FMA.
Bush is at least honest about his position. Kerry, I don't believe, is.
Posted by: Jeff G at October 17, 2004 10:39 AMJeff, the purpose of the court is to ensure that justice is served within the framework of the law--not to reflect the popular will.
If the population is against gay marriage by a significant majority (and that determination is made only when polls are worded in certain ways), they they are free to pursue a state constitutional amendment to change the law.
But I believe time will prove that public opinion will shift significantly in favor of gay marriage once the demagoguery about it bringing about the downfall of civilization is proven false.
Posted by: Michael Ditto at October 17, 2004 11:10 PM