Mary Cheney and Heather Poe to Have a Baby

Unfortunately Cheney is Her Own Worst Enemy in the Gay Rights Debate

BBSNews 2006-12-07 -- It's been outed yesterday that Mary Cheney is pregnant. We congratulate her and her spouse of fifteen years Heather Poe, but it has to be pointed out that her subservience to GOP ideals and those fantical extremists that currently run things in the Republican camp have done her family; herself and Heather and her unborn child, absolutely no good during the time that the Christianist evangelistas have held the reins of legislative and executive power.

Dick Cheney is sworn in for a second term as Vice President by Speaker of the House of Representatives Dennis Hastert during an inaugural ceremony Thursday, Jan. 20, 2005. Lynne Cheney, Mary Cheney, and Liz Cheney listen as he takes the oath of office at the U.S. Capitol. Image Credit: White House photo by Susan Sterner.

It must be gut-wrenching for the extremists to look back on the Vice Presidential inauguration in 2005 and see Mary Cheney, holding up the bible for her father as he takes the oath of office. (By law of course he could have used the Quran.)

You see, the right-wing thinks she is evil, and that her spouse is evil, and that they will burn in hell for all eternity because of what they call her "deviant lifestyle choice," even though every thoughtful person can tell that being gay is not something one just wakes up one day and chooses like changing coffee shops. A persons sexuality is not something one gets from some nefarious "agenda." It is instead a complicated mix of factors with the root most likely genetic in origin.

The usual suspects issued statements. The usual tripe poured forth, from bigoted "family values" organizations that are not about real American families at all, they are about hating anyone who does not believe and condemn others exactly they way they do. And they have the guts to claim that there is a "homosexual agenda." As if striving for equal rights is a Bad Thing(tm). Instead it is the right-wing evangelicals who have an agenda, they seek to divide churches and citizens and impose their narrow views of their "morality" upon everyone else. Good News indeed.

Times Online in a story entitled "Christian outrage at Cheney's lesbian pregnancy" quoted one of the outraged evangelista groups:

"Carrie Gordon-Earll, a spokesman for Focus on the Family, said: 'Mary Cheney's pregnancy raises the question about what is best for children. Just because it’s possible to conceive a child outside the relationship of a married mother and father doesn’t mean it's best for the child. Love cannot replace a mom or a dad.'"

And that directly insults at least three devout women that I can think of who lost their husbands to death, and because of their faith, the reader can probably guess which one, they would not ever think to remarry. In fact, I don't know that any of them ever had any contact with another man again except for the most platonic of relationships. They raised their families through times that one can imagine were very tough, and yet produced strong and healthy kids who grew up into responsible and well loved adults.

Sometimes you have to wonder just who do these self-serving moralists think they are in their ludicrous statements about people they simply hate.

Others jumped in of course. The "Concerned Women for America" organization, a particularly rabid group of women who are really acting against the vast majority of womens interests because they promote anti-family ideals to the gullible, their spokesperson was quoted in an article entitled "Cheney's gay daughter is pregnant" in the Arizona Republic:

"Janice Crouse of Concerned Women for America described the pregnancy as 'unconscionable.'

'It's very disappointing that a celebrity couple like this would deliberately bring into the world a child that will never have a father,' said Crouse, a senior fellow at the group's think tank."

Just what we need, a severely bigoted think tank. Why not start trumpeting the warped ideas of the Aryan Nation as well? They are are on the same plane and drinking the same kool-aid.

In Virginia, where more people voted for the marriage discrimination amendment then for either Senate candidate, there is no warranty for Mary and Heather that some state entity might not swoop in and take their child from them because they are unfit because some bigoted Christianists push the issue. Mary Cheney has been a part of the GOP attack machine because she has helped mightily those that want to discriminate against her growing family: Heather and now their new baby. That is unfortunate.

She would be better off to move from Virginia to Massachusetts. They could get married as residents and then bring up their child in a state that is leading the rest in equal rights for gays. And it would be nice if she stood up to her father and the party of discrimination that he belongs to. And she should admit to herself and the public that she helped to marginalize along with him a huge American constituency that includes -- herself.