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Ugh. If you can make it through this piece by self-proclaimed "on-and-off gay activist" and HIV/AIDS adviser to Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco, Jeff Sheehy, good for you. I'm sure he's a great advisor on AIDS.

Here, Sheehy's gay politics circa yesterdecades drops the gratuitous San Fran "Harvey Milk" shout out with a splash of 1990s "I remember that." What any of it has to do with Mary Cheney and the tasks before her I haven't a clue.

Speaking of Harvey Milk, might not Mary Cheney note and honor the hard work of lesbian and gay activists who have labored for years to get us to the point where a conservative Republican will acknowledge his gay daughter? It is a far cry from Jesse Helms' vicious attack on Roberta Achtenberg in her confirmation hearing 11 years ago.
Again remembering Milk, Mary Cheney could take a moment to consider the sacrifices of the lesbian, gay and transgender people who have been murdered for being who they are. Matthew Shepard's brutal and senseless death and the sympathy it evoked moved us forward -- but at far, far too high a price.
[Who owes whom an apology? - San Francisco Chronicle - 10-21-04]

Ellen Goodman must read da blog.

If Cheney has an argument with anybody it's with his running mate, George Bush. But the "pretty angry father" hasn't directed any of that anger at the Republican platform he's running on.
As for Lynne Cheney, who called Kerry's comments "a cheap and tawdry political trick," what does she call the RNC mailing that warned evangelicals that if Kerry is elected, the Bible will be banned and gay marriage will be the law of the land? High-minded?

At the Republican convention, Alan Keyes, the Republican candidate for Illinois senator, said homosexuality "is based simply on the premise of selfish hedonism." When asked if Mary Cheney was a selfish hedonist, he answered "of course she is." Did Lynne call Alan Keyes a bad man?

Cheney, for his part, said that this incident proves Kerry "will say and do anything in order to get elected." What about the anti-gay marriage amendments gracing the ballots of 11 states, including swing states like Ohio? Did he criticize the campaign's use of the gay issue to get evangelicals to the polls? Who will say and do anything to get elected?

And two days after the debate there was a rally in Washington dubbed "Mayday for Marriage." The "nonpartisan" crowd full of Bush-Cheney buttons was as antigay as it gets. Did I miss it when the candidates distanced themselves from Mayday?
[Who's insensitive to gays? Start with the Cheneys - Boston Globe - 10-21-04]

Dirk Moore is right.

What has really upset the Cheneys is not the political motivations behind Kerry's words, but that he has called them on their hypocrisy. They are now being forced to reconcile their support of their daughter's sexuality with Bush's ugly attempts to gain the votes of people who do not share that support.
[A privileged lesbian aids an anti-gay administration - Roanoke Times - 10-21-04]

Frank Rich has a great peice on the lesbian schadenfreude.

When Mrs. Cheney hyperbolically implies that even using the word lesbian in 2004 is a slur out of the McCarthy era - "a cheap and tawdry political trick," she said - she is playing a similar game. She is positioning lesbian as a term comparable to child molester. But as Dave Cullen writes in Salon: "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." Mrs. Cheney and her surrogates are in effect doing exactly what Elizabeth Edwards had the guts to say they were doing: they are sending the message to Mr. Rove's four million that they are ashamed of Mary Cheney. They are disowning her under the guise of "defending" her. They are exploiting her for the sake of political expediency even as they level that charge at Democrats. [The O'Reilly Factor for Lesbians - New York Times - 10-21-04]

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Posted by Christian at 09:53 AM |