Family Pride’s Blog

The media frenzy over Mary Cheney and Heather Poe’s pregnancy has started to die down. Perhaps Mary and Heather can better focus now on caring for each other and planning ahead for their baby-to-be. At Family Pride, we know how important it is for prospective parents to enjoy their right to privacy as they envision and chart out their family’s future. We strive to create a world in which all parents can do just that. But we also recognize that that world doesn’t currently exist. We weighed in on the debate about LGBTQ parents surrounding Mary and Heather precisely because we know our voices must be heard, loud and clear, for family equality to be achieved. If we’d left the debate to the other side, all we would have heard is more vicious lies about LGBTQ people’s capacity to care and love for others.

On the January 25th edition of CNN’s “The Situation Room,” well-known journalist Wolf Blitzer interviewed the soon-to-be grandfather of Mary and Heather’s baby, Vice President Dick Cheney. In the days after Mary and Heather announced their pregnancy, we heard from the Cheneys that they were excited about the coming birth of their 6th grandchild, but that’s about all we heard. Despite the fact that Family Pride and others made it clear in public statements that the anti-family policies of the Bush Administration stand in stark contrast to the health and well-being of even the Vice President’s own daughter, Dick and Lynn made no public response. In the interview with Wolf Blitzer, however, the issue of Mary and Heather’s pregnancy came up again. This time, the criticism being discussed came from the right:

“Mary Cheney’s pregnancy raises the question of what’s best for children,” said James Dobson, founder and chairman of Focus on the Family, a radical right organization. “Just because it’s possible to conceive a child outside of the relationship of a married mother and father doesn’t mean it’s the best for the child.” Blitzer read this statement aloud to the Vice President and asked for his response.

“Do you want to respond to that?” said Blitzer.
“No,” Dick Cheney said, “I don’t.”

As Blitzer pushed, Cheney did manage to eek out his original statement again - I’m happy and excited about my 6th grandchild. I love my daughters. But he also told Blitzer that he was “out of line with that question.”

Watch the clip for yourself:

What’s out of line about asking a father to respond to personal attacks against his own daughter? You might say that the Cheneys have a right to claim Mary and Heather’s pregnancy as a private family matter. We at Family Pride wish it were so. But the right will stop at nothing to discredit LGBTQ-parented families, not even at their favorite Vice President’s door. And besides, Mary Cheney is not being dragged out of hiding. She announced her pregnancy. She’s run political campaigns. She even criticized her father’s own administration’s stance on marriage equality in her book, Now It’s My Turn: A Daughter’s Chronicle of Political Life.

Let’s get real, here. Family equality is a serious matter. The livelihoods of our families - all families, including the Vice President’s daughter’s - are at stake. We applaud Mary to the extent that she’s stood up and made her family visible. But we question Dick Cheney’s commitment to his daughter when he pleads the 5th on her ability to parent. We have to wonder, had Mary been attacked for being a Republican or a business major would her father have backed down?

Or maybe sitting across from Wolf Blitzer, stumped by a question about his daughter’s capacity for love and caring, being criticized by his own base, the radical right, he finally came face-to-face with his own worst nightmare - his personal and continued responsibility for the hate and discrimination LGBTQ people and their families face in this country. And when he faced it, he shied away.

That’s why it’s so important for all of us out there who do see the absolute need for family equality to step up and be visible, to take action every day, to make up for the losses of people like Dick Cheney. Amazing, isn’t it, that man who can help orchestrate a massive war can’t stand up for his family at home.

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