eva young
Eva Young is President of Log Cabin Republicans of Minnesota and lives in Minneapolis with her cat, Kiddleleewink. You can also read her other blog here.
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October 16, 2004

I'm curious whether anyone is seriously not going to vote for Bush because they found out from Kerry/Edwards that Mary Cheney is gay.

That's what Gary Bauer said in the New York Times - when he said that he was concerned that Kerry pointing out Dick Cheney's daughter was gay (which was pointed out by Dick Cheney last month), that the "traditional values" voters would stay home.

These voters are not "traditional values" voters, they are bigots. Mary Cheney is fine with who she is - and by all indications her family is too. After all, she was a "professional gay", when she worked as the gay liasson for the Coors Beer company in the 1990s.

As Andrew Sullivan says:

BUSTED: Gary Bauer has long denied he's anti-gay, or catering to anti-gay prejudice. But this morning he came clean, in referring to Kerry's mentioning Mary Cheney's lesbianism:

"I think it is part of a strategy to suppress traditional-values voters, to knock 1 or 2 percent off in some rural areas by causing people to turn on the president."

Think about that for a minute. Bauer believes that his core supporters would be likely to "turn" on the president just because the vice-president's daughter is a lesbian. Notice that there's no indication of homosexual "acts", just a revulsion at Mary Cheney's simple identity as a lesbian. This is their base. This is why they're worried. Some of the subtler arguments I've heard overnight say the
following: it's not that homosexuality is wrong; it's just that many people believe that and Kerry therefore exploited their homophobia to gain a point. I don't buy it, but let's assume the worst in Kerry's motives for the sake of argument. What these emailers are saying is that Kerry should hedge what he says in order to cater to the homophobia of Bush's base. Why on earth should he? The truth here is obvious: Bush and Cheney are closet tolerants. They have no problem with gay people personally; but they use hostility to gay people for
political purposes, even if it means attacking members of their own families. What they are currently objecting to is the fact that their hypocrisy has been exposed. To which the only answer is: if you don't want to be exposed as a hypocrite, don't be one.

EY: That's what I find dispicable.....

Also - from Chuck Muth:

OUTING MARY CHENEY

Both John Edwards and John Kerry found it necessary to publicly point out in their national debates that Mary Cheney, the vice president's daughter, is a lesbian. There can be only one reason for this coordinated national "outing": To make sure that fundamentalist Christians know that the Cheneys have a lesbian in the family. They hope this fact will cause such Christians to stay home and/or not vote for the Bush/Cheney ticket because of it.

This is not "Outing".... Mary Cheney was already out, and in fact was a "professional gay" when she worked for Coors beer, to market to the gay community.

Mrs. Cheney called this "a cheap and tawdry political trick." Mrs. Cheney was being WAY too polite. This is gutter politics and homo-baiting from the left. I'm disappointed that prominent gay organizations haven't deplored it.

Seriously, let's suppose the shoe was on the other foot. Let's say that Dick Gephardt had ended up being the Democrat presidential nominee rather than John Kerry. Gephardt has a gay daughter. Now, can you imagine for one minute George W. Bush or Dick Cheney bringing this fact up in a debate with Gephardt? And if they did, can you imagine the outrage which would have exploded from gay groups, not to mention in mainstream newsrooms from coast-to-coast? Where's the intellectual consistency here?

The difference here, is that Dick and Jane Gephardt used Chrissy Gephardt as a liasson to the gay community during the Gephardt campaign for president. Saying someone is gay is not an insult.

What would be FAR worse, however, is if this "cheap and tawdry political trick" works and some Christians DO stay home just because the Cheneys have a gay daughter.

If they stay home for that reason, they aren't Christian, they are bigots.

It seems that the Bushies are really worried that some in the Leviticus Crowd will stay home because they found out Mary Cheney was gay. I'm pretty sure that KEdwards did this in a calculating way. It was speaking to their gay base, saying the PC thing, that being gay is biological. What I find interesting is that the Bushies are trying to shut this down.

Andrew Sullivan says it better. [scroll down for the entry]

A CONSERVATIVE GAFFE: Here's an amazing admission:

"While the Democrats have been hurling specious and unsubstantiated charges about Republicans suppressing the African-American vote, Kerry and Edwards are leading their party's effort — on national television no less — to discourage religious and social conservatives from going to the ballot box for President Bush."

How? By mentioning the fact that Dick Cheney's daughter is openly lesbian. Now why on earth would that fact make one less likely to vote for Bush-Cheney? The only possible reason is that these voters are bigots, and it is partly on that basis that the GOP is appealing to them. If that weren't the case, Cesar Conda's argument wouldn't hold up at all. Well, at least he's honest. So too is NRO for running the piece: we're catering to homophobes and don't mess with that! Just please don't tell me that the GOP is a tolerant or inclusive party. If you depend on bigots to win elections, and you pander to them, and rev them up by demonizing minorities, don't expect the rest of us to sympathize when you're caught red-handed.

Andrew Sullivan hits the nail on the head. I think Log Cabin Republicans' Patrick Guerriero says it well:

Senator Kerry could have made his point about gay and lesbian Americans without mentioning the Vice-President's daughter.

However, this shouldn't distract us from the fact that President Bush, Karl Rove and other Republicans have been using gay and lesbian families as a political wedge issue in this campaign.

Log Cabin Republicans have a message for both campaigns. For Senator Kerry and Senator Edwards, you do not need to talk about the Vice President's daughter in order to discuss your positions on gay and lesbian issues. For President Bush and Karl Rove, you have a moral obligation to stop using gay and lesbian families as a political wedge issue. Our country and our party deserve better.

Kudos to Patrick Guerriero. Personally, I think on the national level, Log Cabin Republicans ought to be focusing on helping the Republicans who deserve our help - one such is Indiana Governor Candidate, Mitch Daniels - who won in a Republican Primary against the Leviticus Crowd candidate. The Gay Baiting by the Democratic Party in Indiana was broken here at Outlet Radio first. The AFA Indiana is now having a cow because Daniels had an outreach meeting with Gay voters. The AFA Indiana predictably said that was like meeting with child molesters.

In Ohio, both US Senators and Governor Taft (all Republicans) have come out publically against the Ohio hate amendment.

It will be interesting to see what Kerry and Bush say about that amendment. I'd love to see Bush asked the question in Ohio: Do you agree with the Republican Secretary of State, or the Republican Senators and Governor about the Ohio constitutional amendment.