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October 22, 2004 > Opinion > There’s something about Mary Cheney

There’s something about Mary Cheney

By Daniel Lenhoff | Columnist

I think if you were to ask Mary Cheney whether she thought she was born a lesbian, she would say, ‘Of course I was.’ She’s not ashamed of it, and the Republican Party shouldn’t be either. On Oct. 13, Senator John Kerry stated that he agrees with my assumption during the third and final debate. But just as with the issue of abortion, President George W. Bush refused to offer any straight talk on the issue of homosexuality. When asked directly by Moderator Bob Schieffer whether homosexuality was a choice, Bush responded that he did not ‘know’ if being gay is a choice or a natural state. Suddenly the resolute president is without opinion. I don’t buy it. Bush knows his base believes homosexuality is a choice, but he also knows that to say so openly would alienate moderate voters. So he refused to clearly answer the question. The Republicans claim to be extremely offended by Kerry’s audacity in pointing out an obvious fact, the same one brought up in the vice-presidential debate that resulted in one of the few pleasant exchanges between Vice President Dick Cheney and Senator John Edwards all night. If Bush believes homosexuality is not a choice in the same way that being black or white is not a choice, then his rationale for refusing gays the right to marry becomes analogous to the efforts in the 1950s to keep interracial marriages illegal. If Bush believes homosexuality is a choice, why not just say so? As a gay Republican in political exile, I know I will not vote for a Republican again until the GOP endorses full marriage rights for gays. Of course, the Democratic party does not recognize my right to marry either. But then again, the Democrats did not piss me off by pushing for the Federal Marriage Amendment. Mary Cheney seems to be in a similar situation. She is talked about as if she has some sort of strange mental disease, a taboo that cannot be mentioned in public discourse. She works hard for her father’s reelection, and she holds a salaried and public position in his campaign. Rather than listening to her parents’ feigned outrage over Kerry’s verbal crimes, perhaps the public should hear what Mary Cheney thinks about the event. The reason we will never see her in a press conference is simple: The Republican platform is filled with anti-gay hatred. The denial of Mary Cheney’s rights is based on a selective and bigoted reading of the Bible, producing a platform that calls for banning gays in the military and forbidding civil unions and hospital visitation rights for gay couples. If Mary Cheney were to show up at a press conference, the second question would be: How can you work for a campaign that wants to enshrine hateful discrimination against you in the U.S. Constitution? Any sort of honest opinion put forward by Mary Cheney would result in shame for the Republicans, who are banking on a doctrine of hatred toward and discrimination against gays. I enthusiastically supported Bush in 2000. But, like Senator Tim Johnson, D-S.D., I am disgusted by Bush’s lurch into the ‘Taliban wing of the Republican Party.’ Republicans, whose party structure under Bush verges on theocracy, do not believe in personal freedom and responsibility — no matter what they claim. In their minds, anyone who would dare to mention that Mary Cheney is a lesbian deserves nothing but scorn. If Jenna Bush were be in a relationship with a black man, would it be out of bounds to bring up this fact during a debate? Perhaps. But if Bush were pushing for an amendment to ban interracial marriage, it would absolutely be relevant, just as Mary Cheney’s relationship is now. According to an Oct. 14 Associated Press report, Lynne Cheney said she was ‘a pretty indignant mom’ and believes Kerry would do anything to get elected. Where was Lynne Cheney’s indignation when Alan Keyes, a carpetbagger Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Illinois, called Mary Cheney ‘a selfish hedonist’ because she was a lesbian? I don’t remember an angry father and an indignant mother then. Anyone who thinks it was vicious for Kerry to state a simple fact about Mary Cheney has vicious assumption about gays in their own heart. Kerry mentioned Mary Cheney without thinking about it. Kerry does not see anything wrong with mentioning homosexuality because he does not see anything wrong with homosexuality. And there is nothing wrong with that.

Daniel Lenhoff is a Hanszen College senior and Pride co-President.

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