Text 3929, 104 rader
Skriven 2004-10-21 13:36:14 av Alan Hess
Ärende: Goodman on Marygate
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  Boston.com        

The Boston Globe

ELLEN GOODMAN

Who's insensitive to gays? Start with the Cheneys

By Ellen Goodman, Globe Columnist  |  October 21, 2004

LET ME SEE if I have this right. The Republicans are now accusing the Democrats
of being insensitive to gay Americans? Or to one gay American at least?

After John Kerry mentioned Mary Cheney in the third debate, talk radio hosts
finally found a lesbian they wanted to protect. Even the homophobic wing of
cable TV rallied to the support of a family with a gay offspring.

Meanwhile, Dick Cheney described himself as "a pretty angry father." And Lynne
Cheney said of the senator: "This is not a good man."

What's wrong with this picture?

Remember way back in the 1980s, when Dick Cheney racked up one of the most
antigay voting records in the House of Representatives? In 1988, he was one of
13 members who even voted against funding for AIDS testing and research when it
was still called a "gay plague." Well, Cheney's come as far as many other
Americans, and for the same essential reason. The more people in our families,
workplaces, and communities come out of the closet, the harder it is to regard
them as deviants who need to be cured or converted or jailed.

Mary was by no means outed on national television. She was already out. She
lives with a longtime partner, wears a ring, and has worked professionally
marketing Coors beer to the gay community.

She and Heather Poe sat at the convention under the camera lights with the rest
of the family. She is not a "child" but the director of vicepresidential
campaign operations and her father's chief confidante.

Dick Cheney has talked openly about his "gay daughter" in one of the rare
moments that warm his icy persona. He even opposes the constitutional amendment
against same-sex marriage that the president supports so ardently.

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?

Mary Cheney is an endangered species, a gay Republican in a campaign so hostile
that even the Log Cabin Republicans refused to endorse Bush this year. She is
loyal to her father, who is loyal to the president.

Is it any wonder that many people in the gay community think she is working for
the enemy? There is even a milk carton posted on the Internet that asks the
question: Have you seen her?

Yes, I am sure that Mary doesn't want to be seen as the Gay Daughter. Yes,
Kerry could have made his point -- that homosexuality is not a choice --
without her help. And yes, the impulse to give a candidate's families some
space and privacy is the right one.

But what Mary presumably wants in terms of privacy and acceptance is at heart
of the gay community's pursuit of full and equal rights, which her party
opposes. It's the people who still regard "lesbian" as a dirty word who most
criticized the senator for using it.

So here we have it. The Republicans are using gay-bashing on a culture warpath
back to the White House while they spin this story so masterfully that they
look like the sensitive protectors of a family with a gay daughter. They have
actually won political points suggesting that Kerry is picking on a gay woman
while they, on the other hand, have compassion for the conservative Cheneys.

Hot damn, they're good at this. The next thing you know Karl Rove and & Co.
will figure out a way for the candidate who (sort of) served in the Air
National Guard to win political points over the decorated veteran of the
Vietnam War. They might even try to tarnish his purple hearts.

Aw, no, they wouldn't go that far.

Ellen Goodman's e-mail address is ellengoodman@globe.com. 
+ Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
 

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