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Skriven 2004-10-16 16:10:02 av Alan Hess
Ärende: reactions to Kerry
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Gay activists see uproar after debate as positive
Kerry's debate mention of Cheney's daughter draws varied reaction

By Stephanie Desmon and Patricia Meisol
Sun Staff
Originally published October 16, 2004

James Packard listens to the hoopla surrounding Sen. John Kerry's mention of
Vice President Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter in this week's presidential
debate and sees headway, not political dirty tricks.

"Look at the progress we [have] made," said the Rockville real estate
developer, who married his partner, Erwin Gomez, in San Francisco when it was
legal for a time in February. "Ten or 20 years ago, you couldn't even say the
word gay. In high school in my time, kids committed suicide if they were gay
because they didn't know how to address it."

Since the third and final presidential debate this week, the discussion has
turned to whether Kerry should have invoked the name of Cheney's adult
daughter, Mary, whom Cheney has been known to talk about on the campaign trail.

Lynne Cheney, Mary's mother and the vice president's wife, gave an impassioned
speech denouncing Kerry - and his character - for mentioning her daughter. Her
husband later joined in her rebuke.

Political observers say the firestorm ignited by Kerry's remark also brings to
the fore the question of the place of family members in politics.

"A lot of things that happen during a campaign that are questionable ethically
and they run the gamut from things that are obviously unethical to those that
are shades of gray, more questionable or iffy," said David Dulio, a political
science professor at Oakland University in Rochester, Mich., and the co-editor
of Shades of Gray, a book on campaign ethics.

"A lot of times when personal family issues get involved, most people say you
shouldn't go there, that that's the line that is crossed."

The question from debate moderator Bob Schieffer of CBS News was about whether
homosexuality is a choice.

"We're all God's children, Bob. And I think if you were to talk to Dick
Cheney's daughter, who is a lesbian, she would tell you that she's being who
she was, she's being who she was born as," Kerry answered.

The response was fast and furious. "This is not a good man," Cheney's wife,
Lynne, said at a late-night rally after the debate. "Speaking as a mom and a
pretty indignant mom," she called Kerry's remark "a cheap and tawdry political
trick."

It wasn't over. Elizabeth Edwards, wife of Democratic vice presidential hopeful
Sen. John Edwards, told a radio audience the next day that Cheney "overreacted"
and "treated it as if it's shameful to have this discussion. I think that's a
very sad state of affairs."

Many Kerry supporters said he didn't have to mention Mary Cheney to make his
point, but others argued that he did it as a not-so-subtle reminder to some in
the Republicans' conservative base that Cheney has a daughter whose lifestyle
they would likely object to.

Other Bush-Cheney supporters say Kerry was probably trying to underscore the
different positions the president and vice president have on the question of
gay marriage, which polls show is one that resonates with many conservative
Christians.

Bush supports a federal amendment banning gay marriage; Cheney has said he
wants to leave it up to the states.

"I've been disappointed in the vice president's position, so I didn't need John
Kerry to remind me," said Mat Staver, an Orlando-based attorney and evangelical
who has fought gay marriage in the courts.

Besides, he said, the alternative of voting for the Democrats "to me is
unthinkable."

Jason Poling, pastor of New Hope Community Church in Owings Mills, said he
thought the tactic was a "low blow" that could embolden evangelicals. "If it
was a political calculation, it boomeranged," he said.

Many gay leaders say they are angry instead at the Bush campaign and its
surrogates for keeping the issue alive by attacking Kerry for bringing Mary
Cheney into the fray, when the Republicans have spent the past year attacking
gay Americans by seeking a constitutional amendment outlawing gay marriage.

At the same time, many say they are pleased that the issue is on the lips of so
many, marking another milestone toward more equal treatment.

"He is using us as political pawns," Christopher Barron, political director for
the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay Republican group, said of Bush, whom his group
is not endorsing despite having done so four years ago.

"He promised to be a uniter, not a divider, in 2000. He promised to be a
compassionate conservative. He has had very little to do with uniting this
country.

The complaints over the comment have been loudest from the Republicans. But
keeping this conversation in the political discourse might not be in their best
interest, with so few days left in this campaign.

"It is at best a sideshow," said William A. Galston, interim dean of the
University of Maryland's School of Public Policy. "It's not what I'd want to
spend the last two weeks of the campaign on."

John Marble, communications director for the Stonewall Democrats, an
organization of gay Democrats, said he is encouraged by the dialogue. He sees
it as perhaps another milestone toward his goal of equal treatment for all
Americans.

He said that every time people see another name attached to the term gay - such
as comedians Ellen DeGeneres and Rosie O'Donnell - it makes people more
comfortable with the idea.

Marble said he used DeGeneres' coming out as a starting point in telling his
parents he is gay. "There are a lot of conversations going on at kitchen tables
because of what John Kerry said, and that's a good thing," he said. "They say,
'Hey, Mom or Dad, Dick Cheney has a gay daughter, too."

One of Colette Roberts' daughters is a lesbian, and Roberts is the chairwoman
of the Howard County chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and
Gays. She was at a senior expo yesterday at Wilde Lake High School in Columbia,
handing out literature on her organization along with other community service
groups, including the GOP at a table across the way.

She put up a sign, in her own calligraphy: "Tell Lynne Cheney it's OK to love
her lesbian daughter."

"My point to them is this: We are all human beings, and there are a whole lot
bigger issues out there like war, education," she said.

"When we can say here's a human being out there who just happens to be a
lesbian, it's OK. To me that's what Kerry is doing, putting a face on this.
There are many families like this."

Sun staff writer Frank Langfitt contributed to this article.


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