Cheney pregnancy upsets conservatives
Veep's daughter has a lesbian partner
Johanna Neuman, Los Angeles Times
newsobserver.com
WASHINGTON - No Republican in Washington is more beloved by social conservatives than Vice President Dick Cheney, who with his wife, Lynne, has backed and breathed every issue dear to them for six tumultuous years.
News that Cheney's openly gay daughter, Mary, is pregnant has therefore touched a raw nerve, as advocates for conservative family values struggle to reconcile their loyalty to the Cheneys with their visceral opposition to same-sex relationships -- and particularly to raising a child without a father.
"Not only is she doing a disservice to her child, she's voiding all the effort her father put into the Bush administration," said Janice Shaw Crouse, senior fellow at the Beverly LaHaye Institute, the think tank run by Concerned Women for America.
The vice president's office confirmed Wednesday that Mary Cheney, 37, an executive at AOL, was expecting her first child with her partner of 15 years, Heather Poe. The vice president and his wife issued a statement saying they are "looking forward with eager anticipation" to the child's arrival.
Some groups that oppose same-sex marriage and gay adoptions -- such as the Family Research Council and the Eagle Forum -- declined to comment. But others were critical, albeit with a delicate touch not always seen in the political wars over gay issues.
"Children deserve the very best we can offer, and gay adoption -- by definition -- intentionally denies children either a mother or a father," said Carrie Gordon Earll, an analyst for Focus on the Family, the Colorado-based family advocacy ministry.
Family Pride, a Washington-based organization that supports gay parenthood, argued that Cheney's pregnancy will focus attention on the injustice of parents without equal rights. She and Poe live in Virginia, which prohibits same-sex marriage or civil unions, and where the legal status of adoption by gays is unclear.
"Unless they move to a handful of less restrictive states, Heather will never be able to have a legal relationship with her child," said Jennifer Chrisler, the group's executive director. |
