Mary Cheney / After the Debate

I find it interesting again that Mary Cheney, Dick Cheney's daughter, is bringing up all this controversy. If I could speak to her personally, I would say this, "Mary, I am so sorry for what you must be going through. You aren't being shown off in public at all the campaign functions like the Bush and Kerry daughters are, you are discluded from the pagentry and public conversations as if you are a family secret, and when Senator Kerry mentioned you were a lesbian the other night, your mother threw a fit. It must be rough to know your mother is so ashamed of you and that your father works for someone who doesn't believe that gays are born gay and should have the same rights as everyone else. When President Bush was asked if he believed being gay was a choice, he said, "I don't know." That might have been the most honest reply he made that night.

     The part that I am always surprised by is that the Republicans don't understand that we can hear them NOT answer questions. Mary Cheney's sister also came on television in order to attack Kerry for saying something about Mary at the debate. His statement was, "I think we are all the same in the eyes of God." Then, to the president he asked, "Do you think that being gay is a choice?" Here is what both Mary Cheney's mother and sister said, "What kind of man says something like that?" I can tell you what kind of man says something like that- someone who isn't a religious, right-wing nutcase, born again Christian dry drunk that thinks he is the ruler of the world. He had complimented the Cheney family on their strengths in standing behind their daughter. When Mary's sister was finally asked, "Was your sister insulted?" She repeated her righteously indignant acting remark ("It was insulting.") to Senator Kerry's statement, which, by the way was scripted for her mother and her to say exactly in those words. ("It was insulting, that is all I am going to say.") It would only be insulting to someone who was ashamed of their daughter or sister.

My parents have some friends who are NeoCons like the religious zealots who have called Mary Cheney a sinner and they disowned their daughter because she is gay. After a couple decades, the father is dying from Alheimer's and the mother is lonely and wishing she had made a better choice than to listen to Radical Right Wing Religious Leaders who have destroyed their family. Was it worth it to destroy the relationship between a mother and her daughter in order to prove that something (albeit supposedly written in a book by people who still thought the world was flat) was correct? It brings to mind the old addage, "I would rather be happy than right." Lynn Cheney, you might want to think about that.