Thursday, February 1, 2007

Mary Cheney: My baby 'is not a prop'

Dick Cheney became testy last week when CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked him what he thought of conservatives who are critical of his daughter's pregnancy. Cheney told Blitzer he was "over the line."

In a brief interview with The New York Times after Wednesday's panel, Mary Cheney said she agreed that Blitzer had crossed a line. "He was trying to get a rise out of my father," she said.

Glamour editor Cindi Leive asked Cheney during the panel discussion if she had anything to say to conservatives such as James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, who have criticized her pregnancy, asserting that children should be raised by heterosexual married couples.

She responded, "Every piece of remotely responsible research that has been done in the last 20 years on this issue has shown there is no difference between children who are raised by same-sex parents and children who are raised by opposite-sex parents. What matters is that children are being raised in a stable, loving environment."
Note to Mary Cheney: it's not unreasonable that folks who think that lesbians actually should have all the rights of, say, other human beings should want your father, who supports a regime that obviously doesn't think that lesbians deserve the same rights as other human beings, to justify his support for folks who think your decision to be who you are (instead of who James Dobson would like you to be) is abominable.

Mary Cheney's baby is not a prop. But Mary Cheney is certainly becoming one herself if she refuses to even acknowledge the hypocrisy of the current administration and her father's tacit role in propagating anti-LGBT hatethink.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

What should Mary Cheney do then?
Should she do nothing but argue against and hate her father for being what he is, and doesn't that simply propagate more hypocrisy? (given your interesting neuroscience post below, it would seem possible that Vice President Cheney's brain chemistry predisposed him to conservatism)

Garrett said...

I never said she should hate her for for being what he is. That's part of the problem, Dick Cheney won't define who he even is.

Mary Cheney could simply say honest things like,

"I support my father and his administration on X, Y, and Z, but I clearly find his administration's stance on LGBT issues to be disgusting, ill-thought, and offensive. However, because of my commitment to X, Y, and Z, and because I feel that there are other very important issues in addition to an administration's stance on LGBT affairs, I support my father and his administration."

How hard would that be to simply ACKNOWLEDGE the dissonance between her father's administration and the reality of her lifestyle? I'm not asking for Mary Cheney to renounce her party or her father. I'm not asking for Dick Cheney to renounce the Republican party. I am asking for both of them to admit that a person can be firmly committed to conservative stances on foreign and economic policy (and even a great deal of its social policy) and yet still affirm the human rights of the members of the LGBT community.

Just acknowledge the difference of opinion firmly, state that while its a matter of great personal importance, it can be set aside for the moment to keep America safe from terrorists and to ensure that the economy is strong for our grandchildren, etc.

I'd respect that. And I think most Americans would as well.