The Reaction: An indignation of inconvenience

Guest post by Greg Prince

I've really been trying to keep my mouth shut because as a married man I'm not supposed to bother with opinions about children and relationships. But Mary Cheney has got to be the most self-righteously clueless woman on the face of the earth.

From CNN:

The decision to become pregnant and raise a child with her female partner was not political, Mary Cheney, a daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney, told a Barnard College audience.

"This is a baby," Cheney said Wednesday at a forum sponsored by Glamour magazine. "This is a blessing from God. It is not a political statement. It is not a prop to be used in a debate by people on either side of an issue. It is my child."

Mary quite contrary is desperately using her unborn child as a foil to change the subject because it reveals blind spots and inconsistencies she'd rather not face.

Lest we forget, her dad blasted CNN's Wolf Blitzer for presuming to ask about the political inconsistency created by GOP homophobia.

Some people are trying to be understanding. For example, Gentle Fudge observes:

Many feel that a child thrives when raised by a stable, loving family; the controversy lies with what sexes comprise that family life. Focus on the Family has been openly critical of Ms. Cheney's pregnancy due to her unmarried status. (Ok, so let her get married, then. No, wait, you don't want that either...) During a CNN interview, Wolf Blitzer took a cheap-shot at Vice President Dick Cheney, asking if he cared to respond to the criticism. Mr. Cheney rightly refused to comment on the personal matter.

But it's not quite that easy. The question wasn't about Mary’s baby, but about the GOP's small-tent politics. How does Big Dick manage to sleep at night knowing he's enabling a culture of destruction that guarantees his grandchild will never have married parents, never have the stability that comes from equal protection under the law, and that endeavors constantly to consign his own daughter to second-class citizenship. Mary's own participation in this sorry state of affairs borders on the pathological.

Gene Touchet catches it succinctly:

4,000,000 or so fundamentalists who voted your father and Mr. Bush into a second term do not agree with you.

The question is one of party philosophical hypocrisy. Women in your position are, every day, facing discrimination which is but an academic question for you. With your father's wealth and access to power, you will never have to worry about your or Heather's or the child's welfare.

It's good to have the support of the family. You and your father should be working so all committed same-sex couples should be able to enjoy.

You can't look at the Cheneys here and not be reminded of Mel Brooks' History of the World. "It's good to be the king." All is well; meanwhile, the little people get screwed.

Or as Sean Bugg puts it:

I've not always agreed that every aspect of Mary Cheney's lesbian life should be subject to political scrutiny, but there doesn't seem to be any option here other than that she's being willfully obtuse. She notes that contrary to the hysterics of the religious and social conservatives, "Every piece of remotely responsible research that has been done in the last 20 years has shown there is no difference between children raised by same-sex parents and children raised by opposite-sex parents; what matters is being raised in a stable, loving environment."

Of course, her father's political cronies and supporters have been busily running around the nation erecting state constitutional roadblocks the preclude stable, loving environments. The sheer audacity of Mary Cheney, whose political connections and familial wealth serve to insulate her from many of the effects of the exceedingly harsh anti-gay amendment in her own state of Virginia, declaring that it's off limits to ask her father about the apparent conflict (or, better yet, hypocrisy) between his political actions and personal life should be enough for the entire gay and lesbian community to write her off as hopeless.

It's true, the rich are different.