Dick Cheney’s gay daughter pregnant - Family Pride responds
Family Pride on Dec 6th 2006
Who knew that today we would wake up to the news that Mary Cheney and her partner Heather Poe are expecting their first child? Let me say first and foremost as a parent that I couldn’t be more happy for the two of them. As we all know, being a parent is an amazing experience that challenges us, fulfills us and makes our world bigger and smaller all at the same time.
But I also can’t help but note the irony of this situation. That this child will be born into a largely political family and into a society that has for the last 6 years endured the unending attacks of fundamentalists, the conservative right, many factions of the Republican party and largely under the leadership of our current President and his administration, of which Grandpa Cheney is second in command. And I am sure that it is this juxtaposition that is catching the media’s attention as it reports on the Mary Cheney pregnancy story.
Today I’ve already taped segments for CNN’s Situation Room and Good Morning America. I’ve spoken to reporters at the Wall Street Journal and LA Times and all of them are transfixed by whether this addition to the Cheney clan will somehow move Vice-President Cheney to speak out about the very anti-LGBTQ family policies he has complicity supported. Because the reality is that he’s not only hurt the millions of children already being raised by one or more LGBT parents in this country - he’s actually hurt his own soon-to-be-born grandchild.
Hopefully, having this conversation will give us an opportunity to educate people about the unique challenges we face as LGBTQ parents and that even the Vice-President’s daughter won’t be immune from those challenges. In the meantime, I’ll give the Cheney-Poe family the same advice I give to all expectant LGBTQ parents. Get lots of sleep, go on lots of dates together, see a good movie, draw up your wills, powers of attorney, and health care proxies, drive the route to the hospital where you will deliver and, most of all, get ready for the biggest joy of your life.
Jennifer Chrisler,
Executive Director, Family Pride
Filed in mary cheney |
Wow….this is great! Finally, people are getting to see that Bush / Cheney and republicans are not the paragons of virtue and morality as they have tried to legislate from the start when they illegally seized political power over this nation in 2000. The republican party preyed upon the one dimensional voting habits of the religious right wing to assimilate them into their voter base in order to seize political power in 2000. That is because the religious right wing of this nation will vote for anyone who claims to be conservative, moral, Christian or against abortion. It must be difficult being a republican in 2007. To be a republican in 2007, you must concurrently believe the following. Jesus loves you but shares your same hatred of homosexuals and Hillary Clinton. Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you’re a conservative radio host. Then it’s an illness and you need our prayers for your recovery. Iran was a good country when Ford and Rumsfeld and Cheney, along with General Electric, gave them our nuclear technology in the 1970’s. Good guys when Cheney did business with them in the 1990’s. But, then bad guys when Bush junior needed a prop for his re-election campaign as the “war president”. Government should limit itself to the powers named in the Constitution, which should include “banning gay marriages and censoring the Internet”. It’s OK to be republican lesbian but if you are Democrat then you are someone with a gay liberal agenda. God Bless America!!!
In response to CK, love is what makes a family.
To your second question, VP Cheney is harmful to children because the policies that he publicly supports make it hard for parents from all loving families to protect their children - ensuring things like social security survivor benefits, health care coverage, custody rights and child support responsibilities.
According to the US Census in 2000, 77% of families in the United States are “non-traditional.” There are grandparents raising children, single parents, blended families and guardians. No matter the landscape of your family, it is love, commitment and support that are the most important things.
Mary and Heather decided to create their family together - who are we to tell them that their family isn’t a real family?
Jennifer:
I was thrilled and proud to see your comments on Mary Cheney & Heather Poe’s expectancy in an article on CNN. I hope Mary’s pregnancy will bring some much-needed attention to the fight for family equality, and I’m proud to stand next to Family Pride on the side of equality.
I miss you guys lots.
-Kate Bigam-
Ms. Chrisler,
Please clarify your statement regarding this news.
Ms. Cheney and her partner are not having a baby together nor are they both soon to become parents. As Ms. Poe is incapable of impregnanting Ms. Cheney, what exactly is her relationship with the baby? Regardless of whether or not these two women are “allowed to marry” each other, this fact remains, please address it.
Also, how exactly is Vice President Cheney harmful to children? He raised those he created with his wife up just fine it seems.
I look forward to your explanation.
Thank you, CK
In truth, children are harmful to VP Cheney.
Look at how many are being murdered in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the former Yugoslavia.
Gen 19:13 For we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the LORD; and the LORD hath sent us to destroy it.
Gen 19:14 And Lot went out, and spake unto his sons in law, which married his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place; for the LORD will destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons in law.
Gen 19:15 And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city.
Gen 19:16 And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the LORD being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city.
Gen 19:17 And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.
Gen 19:18 And Lot said unto them, Oh, not so, my Lord:
Gen 19:19 Behold now, thy servant hath found grace in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy mercy, which thou hast shewed unto me in saving my life; and I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil take me, and I die:
Gen 19:20 Behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one: Oh, let me escape thither, (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live.
Gen 19:21 And he said unto him, See, I have accepted thee concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow this city, for the which thou hast spoken.
Gen 19:22 Haste thee, escape thither; for I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither. Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.
Gen 19:23 The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar.
Gen 19:24 Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven;
Gen 19:25 And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.
Gen 19:26 But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.