Gay Rights Group Slams Cheney

[colinian]

From ABC News:

Gay Rights Group Slams Cheney After Announcement of Daughter's Pregnancy

Family Pride: VP Has Done 'Irreparable Harm' to Gay Community

Dec. 6, 2005 ? STATEMENT BY JENNIFER CHRISLER OF FAMILY PRIDE:

The front page of the Washington Post's Web site announced today that Mary Cheney, Vice President Dick Cheney's gay daughter, is pregnant. Mary and her partner of 15 years, Heather Poe, are described as "ecstatic" about the arrival of their first child, due in late spring.

The news of Mary Cheney's pregnancy exemplifies, once again, how the best interests of children are denied when lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender citizens are treated unfairly and accorded different and unequal rights and responsibilities than other parents. As Mary and Heather enter into the life-changing roles of parents, they will quickly face the reality that no matter how loved their child will be ? by its mothers and its grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins and close family-friends ? he or she will never have the same protections that other children born to heterosexual couples enjoy. Mary and Heather currently live in Virginia. Unless they move to a handful of less restrictive states, Heather will never be able to have a legal relationship with her child.

The tragedy here is that this climate of hostility toward the LGBT community has only worsened during the administration of which Vice President Cheney ? or Grandfather Cheney in this context ? has been second-in-command. Vice President Cheney has been complicit in the largest full-scale attack on the LGBT community in modern history. He, his president, and his political party, have repeatedly targeted the LGBT community and LGBT families for scapegoating as part of their calculated political strategy and have attacked at all levels the rights and protections his own daughter will need to ensure a strong, healthy, legally protected family.

Grandfather Cheney will no doubt face a lifetime of sleepless nights as he reflects on the irreparable harm he and his administration have done to the millions of American gay and lesbian parents and their children.

Copyright ? 2006 ABCNews Internet Ventures

Colin

[Tanuki Racoon]

Grandfather Cheney will no doubt face a lifetime of sleepless nights as he reflects on the irreparable harm he and his administration have done to the millions of American gay and lesbian parents and their children.

I can assure you Grandfather Cheney will not lose one second of sleep because he doesn't give a flying fuck what harm he's done to the gay and lesbian parents out there.

[Krista]

Well I cannot imagine how he could stand against his own daughter and her wishes. No matter what his political views were. To not even show any kind of wavering is, to me, sick.

He has to know they have no legal rights as parents and it is that way because of his political party.

Krista

[Drewbie]

Ugh This makes me sick, He knows he's daughter is gay and never tried to talk sense into bush or even eh whatver, I feel bad for his daughter.

Edit

Hours later after posting was flickering thru a radio station bill fucking orliey is one, some ingorant ass besides bill saying kids are always best in a man and woman situation, other guy said gay ppl live bad lives are sad and are better when they become str8, gay ppl can infulence kids and then they think, its' okay to experiment, I AM SO FUCKING PISSED.

[carolinascribbler]

This article pisses me off.

Family Pride website

I went to the Family Pride website, thinking that surely, Jennifer Chrisler, Executive Director didn't issue a statement that was essentially, a bitch and moan. I was wrong.

Ok, this is from Family Pride's very own website, their Mission Statement:

vision & mission ::

> Our Vision :: Love. Justice. Family. Equality.

All loving families should be recognized, respected, protected and celebrated. We believe that families are not truly defined by blood relationship, but instead by love and commitment.

We believe in the freedom of a just society to define our own families?to stand proudly with the people closest to us in our lives and be able to say, ?because of who you are, what you mean to me, how we treat each other and our deep commitment to one another, we are a family!?

We envision a country that celebrates a diversity of family constellations and that respects and commends individuals for stepping up, supporting one another and creating families.

This movement, this struggle is not about gay or straight, it?s simply about family equality.

> Our Mission :: Family Pride is committed to achieving family equality in our lifetime!

Family Pride works with other progressive national and state-based organizations, local parents groups and families, friends and allies to make change, share information and build community.

Maintaining the focus of LGBTQ parents and their families, in 2005, Family Pride expanded our mission and embraced the fight for full family equality for all loving families.

We recognize and believe that the laws, provisions and ordinances that hurt LGBTQ-headed families also hurt so many others?single parents, blended families, families of color, etc. To that end, Family Pride is standing strong to defeat anti-family legislation and promote pro-family legislation.

Ms. Chrisler, in her 'official' statement, said nothing positive about Mary Cheney or her partner, Heather Poe. It was simply a diatribe against Vice-President Cheney and the conservative policies of the the Bush administration. Well, hey, we all know about this administration's policies towards the GLBT community, don't we? But thank you Ms. Chrisler for clarifying it for us.

Nowhere does the statement congratulate or even offer an ounce of support for Cheney/Pope. I know that Mary Cheney's work on the Bush/Cheney re-election campaign in 2004 ruffled a lot of feathers, many made her out to be a Judas, but that's no damn reason for the left to villify her, is it? I certainly don't think so.

The press, the wonderful press, the 'fair and balanced', and the ultra-liberal, the press is having a wonderful time with this announcement, spinning it every way imaginable. VP'S GAY DAUGHTER - PREGNANT! read the headlines. The real headlines should read, TWO WOMEN, IN A COMMITED AND LOVING RELATIONSHIP DECIDE TO START A FAMILY!

The sad part is that if it were anyone but the vp's daughter, no one would give two hoots in hell about it.

I applaud Mary Cheney and Heather Poe for having the courage to start a family. I hope their relationship lasts a lifetime and that they will provide a stable and loving home to their child.

Just my two cents worth.

[colinian]

...The sad part is that if it were anyone but the vp's daughter, no one would give two hoots in hell about it.

I applaud Mary Cheney and Heather Poe for having the courage to start a family. I hope their relationship lasts a lifetime and that they will provide a stable and loving home to their child.

Just my two cents worth.

My local paper, the Contra Costa Times, didn't carry the story. They have a tendency to only print stories about gay people that are newsworthy and positive.

A short story in the Los Angeles Times had the headline Cheney daughter, partner expecting and read:

Mary Cheney, the vice president's openly gay daughter, is pregnant, the Washington Post reported. The paper said that Cheney, 37, and her partner of 15 years, Heather Poe, were expecting the baby in late spring. Poe, 45, a former park ranger, is renovating their Great Falls home.

IMO, if it was considered news, the story should have read like the one in the L.A. Times.

Colin

[JamesSavik]

My local paper, the Contra Costa Times, didn't carry the story. They have a tendency to only print stories about gay people that are newsworthy and positive.

Colin

This is a welcome change from when I was your age Colin. The only time I ever saw the word homosexual in the papers, it was used to describe several of the seventies most notorious serial killers.

JS

[DesDownunder]

This is a welcome change from when I was your age Colin. The only time I ever saw the word homosexual in the papers, it was used to describe several of the seventies most notorious serial killers.

JS

Hm mm I wonder if you would mind clarifying that James?

Do you mean that the serial killers were described as being homosexual or were the serial killers killing homosexuals?

Thanks

[Nickolas James]

Hm mm I wonder if you would mind clarifying that James?

Do you mean that the serial killers were described as being homosexual or were the serial killers killing homosexuals?

Thanks

I thought he meant that they were talking about homosexuals killing the serial killers

[DesDownunder]

I thought he meant that they were talking about homosexuals killing the serial killers

Touche, Very good!

[colinian]

This is a welcome change from when I was your age Colin. The only time I ever saw the word homosexual in the papers, it was used to describe several of the seventies most notorious serial killers.

JS

JS, here's an example from Saturday's Contra Costa Times. The article is on page A3 (that's the main section of the paper, and page A3 is the local news page), and is headlined Popular gay bar thrives with diverse clientele. The on-line article doesn't include the large pix of two middle-age looking guys dancing that was above the article titled "A Different Kind of Coming Out Party" above the pix.

I think it's very cool that my local newspaper (circulation 195,980) seems very gay-friendly.

Colin