Republican Congressman Virgil Goode is going to be offering an amendment in the US House today bashing Vice President Cheney's lesbian daughter, Mary Cheney, her lesbian partner, Heather Poe, their newborn child, Samuel David Cheney, and all gay families who visit the District of Columbia (Mary and Heather had their baby in a DC hospital a few weeks ago). You see, the Republicans don't think Samuel David should be allowed to have Mary and Heather both visit him if he ever ends up in the hospital. George Bush, who in 2004 had no problem with Samuel David's parents having the right to see him in the hospital, now thinks that it's such an egregious crime, he's going to veto any DC Appropriations bill that doesn't take a swipe at Samuel David and his two mommies.
Will Dick Cheney and Lynne Cheney speak up and defend their flesh and blood, or will they leave their own grandchild behind?
It's time for Dick and Lynne to prove whether they love their new grandson or not.
Bush is now threatening to veto the DC Appropriations bill because it no longer includes gay-bashing language that the GOP has put in there for years. The language banned the DC government from using federal funds to in any way support domestic partner benefits, civil unions and the like (not that the DC government was using federal funds, but it was a nice chance for the GOP to gay bash anyway). Now that the Democrats have dropped the GOP gay-bashing language from the bill, George Bush is threatening a veto.
First off, has Bush learned nothing from the fact that his vice president has a daughter, Mary Cheney, who is a lesbian, and who just had a child - in DC - with her lesbian partner, Heather Poe? What Bush is saying is that should Heather end up in a hospital in DC, dying, Mary won't be allowed to see her because she's not "family." What Bush is saying is that if Mary and Heather's baby, Samuel David Cheney, ends up in a DC hospital with a serious illness (and forget him if he ends up in Virginia) only one parent (we're not sure which) will be allowed to visit because both clearly aren't the biological parent of their baby. (And it's interesting that Mary and Heather, who live in Virginia, chose to come to DC to have their baby - a city in which they have far more rights as a lesbian couple than they have in Virginia. Yet now those rights are in danger of being taken away by the man Mary helped get elected. Way to go, mom.)
Second, Bush supports civil unions for gay couples. He said so on ABC right before the 2004 elections. From the NYT:
In an interview on Sunday with Charles Gibson, an anchor of "Good Morning America" on ABC, Mr. Bush said, "I don't think we should deny people rights to a civil union, a legal arrangement, if that's what a state chooses to do so."
So, why is he now going to veto legislation that supports his own policies? Answer: because Bush has nothing left to stand for. As he sinks lower in the polls he can only define himself by saying "no," and by falling back on tried and true Republican cliches: lowering taxes; scaring the public; and bashing gays (and their babies). And if Bush has to say no to Samuel David Cheney, Mary and Heather's baby, in order to appease the bigots at the Family Research Council, then the baby is toast. Hell, the baby is the easiest target (reminds me of an old ad from the Children's Defense Fund (at left)).
George Bush is willing to veto Mary Cheney's baby. And not a word from Dick Cheney or Lynne Cheney about the legislative child abuse Bush is about to inflict on their grandson. It's bad enough Dick and Lynne Cheney sat by for so many years as the GOP (and Dick's own boss) bashed their daughter, but you'd think that the Cheneys would finally come to the defense of their own innocent grandson, Samuel David. The Cheneys have a simple choice. They can side with their own flesh and blood, or they can side with the people who bashed Mary and Heather and their newborn child.
So the question remains, Dick and Lynne, do you love the kid or not?
This time from a former employee of the Family Research Council and the Concerned Women for America who also ran the top religious right group in Illinois until he suddenly left. He's upset that Bush is too pro-gay. Uh huh.
WorldNetDaily, a silly publication that is an important source for right-wing talk radio and FOX GOP operatives, is joining the attack on Vice President Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter, Mary Cheney, and her partner Heather Poe for having a baby. More background on this story here.
I just happened upon this White House press briefing from last December in which White House spokesman Tony Snow referred to Vice President Cheney's lesbian daughter, Mary, and her partner, Heather Poe, as "parents." At the time, it kind of slipped by me. But in view of the growing brouhaha over the White House Web site officially acknowledging Heather as a "parent" (she and Mary just gave birth to a baby boy), Snow's earlier comment takes on much more meaning.
Q Tony, in an interview with People Magazine, the President was asked about Mary Cheney's pregnancy, and said he's confident -- he believes she'll be a loving soul to her child. In the past, he said that he believes the ideal is that a child be raised in a married family with a man and a woman. Does he still believe that's the ideal?
MR. SNOW: Yes, he does, but he also believes that every human life is sacred and that every child that comes into the world deserves love. And he believes that Mary Cheney's child will, in fact, have loving parents.
Q Does he believe that children who are raised by gay and lesbian parents are at a disadvantage?
MR. SNOW: He does not make comments on that, and nor will I.
Note that Snow also refused to take the bait and knock gay parents. The Web site posting last week takes on a whole new light knowing that Snow acknowledged Heather's legitimacy as a gay parent all the way last winter.
Now a religious right news service is jumping on the bandwagon. The Bushies, with Mary's help, created this religious right monster by happily embracing these bigots into the GOP. Now they'll have to deal with the consequences of their own actions.
And the far-right got upset that we criticized Jerry Falwell after his death. That doesn't even come close to dissing a newborn baby. But there you have it, Stephen Bennett, a spokesman for the Concerned Women for America, one of the largest religious right groups, today blasted Vice President Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter, Mary, and her partner Heather Poe for having a baby out of wedlock. As we reported yesterday, the White House published a baby announcement on the Vice President's portion of the White House Web site, noting that the Mary and Heather were both "parents" of the newborn child.
Well, that set the religious right off, big time. Here is what Bennett had to say about Mary and Heather having a baby, then I've posted his press release in its entirety - it's a must-read of venom.
SBM PRAISES parents and individuals - mothers and fathers - who have taken on the noble task of adopting children and giving them a chance at life in the God ordained family unit including a Daddy and Mommy. Every child deserves a Daddy and Mommy. We understand, sometimes through death or divorce, that unit is broken - and parents do the best they could to raise and nurture their child or children. That's where we as the Body of Christ step in to help and be there for the family and child. We celebrate these individuals and families. Sometimes in a second heterosexual marriage, children are adopted. We praise these men and women who do all they could to raise these children. THESE ARE REAL PARENTS. This is NOT playing "house."
Homosexual parenting though is something TOTALLY different. It "mimicks" the real and the natural....
And here is Bennett's press release. I can't even begin to excerpt it or bold it, it's that bad. Read it:
OFFICIAL SBM PRESS RELEASE 05/30/07:
White House Officially Recognizes Homosexual Unions and Parenting?
Contact: The Parents Group ~ SBM's National Office, 203-926-6960
HUNTINGTON, Conn., May 30 /Christian Newswire/ -- On May 23, 2007, the White House, silently and without any fanfare, released an official White House photo of Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne Cheney, welcoming their sixth grandchild, Samuel David Cheney, into the Cheney fold.
The beautiful little tyke weighed in at 8 lbs., 6 oz. and was born at 9:46 a.m. at Sibley House in Washington, D.C.
What is extremely troubling is the official White House caption that appears underneath the photo on the official White House website:
"... His parents are the Cheney's daughter Mary, and her partner, Heather Poe. White House photo by David Bohrer."
Since when have two homosexual women been able to naturally procreate?
Fact is Mary Cheney, the Vice President's daughter - in one way or another - received a male's sperm. She is the biological mother, parent number one, and some man, somewhere out there, is Samuel David's real biological father, parent number two.
Unlike the official White House photo caption, a man and a woman, a Daddy and a Mommy, are Samuel David Cheney's REAL biological parents.
Then who is Heather Poe?
Heather Poe is Mary Cheney's live-in lesbian lover. She may act like a parent, she may treat the baby as a parent, she may love this baby with all of her heart, but in this reality we all live in, Heather Poe is NOT the baby's real parent. She has NO biological connection to the child whatsoever. Some man, the baby's real Daddy, is the child's other REAL parent.
If the Vice President and his wife Lynne are joining their daughter Mary in playing this homosexual game of "house," then all have chosen their roles and designated lesbian lover Heather Poe as the "Daddy."
Everyone knows there can only be one REAL biological Mommy. We are all grown adults. Playing "house" is a game for children, not for The White House or the Vice President and his wife.
What is so hypocritical of this Administration is its "double-speak."
President George W. Bush held several presses conferences calling for a Federal Marriage Amendment to protect the God-ordained institution of marriage between one man and one woman, while homosexuals pushed for the union of two men or two women to be equally recognized as real "marriage."
However, the President's number two, right hand man, Vice President Dick Cheney, clearly rebels against his superior, makes a public mockery of the President and the current Administration he is supposed to represent, and clearly holds to a different set of moral standards and beliefs.
When President Bush stood on the victory stage several years ago after being elected into office by values voters, Mary Cheney was on stage as well with her lesbian lover, Heather Poe. It was a slap in the face to the values voters who had just elected the duo into office. That wound has never healed.
While this little innocent child Samuel David Cheney deserves every fighting chance at life, the sins of two women, Mary Cheney and Heather Poe, have deliberately denied the Vice President's grandson one of the most basic human rights of all: the right to a Daddy and a Mommy.
I say shame on the White House, shame on the President and shame on the Vice President for allowing such a caption to be "officially" added onto the White House website and such a beautiful photo of two happy grandparents and their new grandchild.
I guess we can tragically and officially say both the White House and Bush Administration have officially recognized the sinful sexual unions of homosexuals, as well as recognized and embraced the tragedy of the social experiment of homosexual parenting.
Something rather historic happened this past week. The White House, for the first time ever on its Web site (that I know of), recognized the legitimacy of gay couples as both married and as parents. It was done, innocuously enough, when the White House published a photo of Vice President Dick Cheney's new grandson, the child of the VP's lesbian daughter and her lesbian spouse. The White House not only published a photo of the child with the VP and his wife, but the caption was even more telling:
Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne Cheney, welcomed their sixth grandchild, Samuel David Cheney, Wednesday, May 23, 2007. He weighed 8 lbs., 6 oz and was born at 9:46 a.m. at Sibley Hospital in Washington, D.C. His parents are the Cheneys’ daughter Mary, and her partner, Heather Poe. White House photo by David Bohrer
Did you catch that last sentence? The White House officially recognized a lesbian couple as co-equal parents of a child. That not only is a recognition of the legitimacy of gay parents - i.e., if one person is the birth mother and the other the mother's partner, both are the "parents" of the child, per the White House - but the White House is also, implicitly, recognizing the legitimate couple status of two gay people in love, i.e., they are not simply two unrelated gay people, they are parents, akin to your parents, akin to a married couple. Why do I say that the White House is de facto recognizing gay marriage? Because either Mary or her lover, or both, are not the biological mom of this child - with two women, only one can be the biological parent. For the White House to recognize both as parents means that they are recognizing the legitimacy of the two women as one entity, the parent. Anyway, it's a hell of a statement by any White House, let alone one of the most conservative in history, and one that prides itself on being so anti-gay.
So now a question for grandpa: Isn’t it just a bit disingenious to say that your daughters’ family is private & off limits and to get so pissy with reporters for being “out of line,” and then you’ve got this photo on the home page of an official government website?
Hey, its not like we think you are personally a homophobe, and your love for your daughter is obvious. But given your role in an administration that denies your grandson a legal relationship with the mom who you credit as a parent on the White House website, isn’t it time to explain this incongruity?
Mary and her lesbian out-of-wedlock lover, Heather Poe, just had a baby. They live in Virginia, where they have no rights. Will the media ask the gay-basher in chief how he feels about Mary and Heather living in sin and forcing a young child to live without a dad?
Good for her. Now help make the world a better place for your child and surprise us.
PS Check out the official White House photo, to the left. I believe it's traditional for at least one of the first baby photos to be with the parents, not the grandparents. Or are we again trying to hide the fact that baby Cheney has two mommies? These people are a real piece of work.
Not that there's anything wrong with it. Oh yeah, there is something wrong with it, at least according to Dick Cheney and George Bush. They tried to pass a constitutional amendment forever taking away the rights of Mary Cheney, her lesbian partner Heather Poe, and their soon to be born baby boy.
It'll be a boy for Mary Cheney! Her dad revealed the gender of his future grandchild yesterday during an interview with ABC News Radio.
"I'm delighted I'm about to be a grandparent for the sixth time," said Dick Cheney. "I'm looking forward to the arrival of a new grandson." The veep confirmed that the baby is due next month; this will be the first child for Mary and partner Heather Poe, and the third grandson for the Cheneys.
But he wasn't touching the question about the same-sex family's legal standing. "I think each state ought to have the capacity to decide how they want to handle those issues," he said. " . . . And I obviously think it's important for us as a society to be tolerant and respectful of whatever arrangements people enter into."
But of course each family can't decide, Dick, because you and your president have enabled the very people who hate your daughter and you grandson, people who want to make her a political football, and a very second-class football at that. Heck of a grandpa you turned out to be, Dick.
Murphy, I mean Mary, is due in "late spring." That sounds a lot like May to me. We'll be doing regular pregnant-single-mom-lesbian-daughter updates every time Dick Cheney launches, like he did today, another low blow against the majority of Americans who oppose this debacle of a war (you might be surprised to hear that Dick Cheney thinks the majority of Americans hate the troops).
Dick, your daughter Mary Cheney is one of those "faggots" Ann Coulter smeared at the very conference you chose to attend. Giuliani and Romney (who also spoke there) and McCain (who didn't even attend) have all denounced Ann Coulter's hateful homophobia, yet you, the father of a very pregnant lesbian daughter, have nothing to say about lending your good name to this hate-filled forum. And it's even worse now that CPAC has refused to condemn Coulter and has left the door open to having her back next year. Will you be speaking at CPAC next year too, Dick, alongside the woman who viciously attacked your daughter and her soon to be out-of-wedlock two-mommied child?
“This is a baby. This is a blessing from God. It is not a political statement. It is not a prop to be used in a debate, on either side of a political issue. It is my child.”
Then he begins.
Nice try, Mary.
Yes, it’s a baby, not a prop. My kid isn’t a prop either, but that never stopped right-wingers from attacking me and my boyfriend over our decision to become parents. The fitness of same-sex couples to parent is very much part of the political debate thanks to the GOP and the Christian bigots that make up its lunatic “base.” You’re a Republican, Mary, you worked on both of your father’s campaigns, and you kept your mouth clamped shut while Karl Rove and George Bush ran around the country attacking gay people, gay parents, and our children in 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2006. It’s a little late to declare the private choices of gays and lesbians unfit for public debate, Mary.
Oh, and that's nothing. You really need to read the rest of the column. Let's just say it's not quite quotable for a family blog like our own. :-)
Dick Cheney's daughter, and former gay rights activist and professional homosexual and head of the vice president's re-election campaign, Mary Cheney publicly declared today to an open panel discussion, and then in a personal interview with the New York Times (circulation 1.1 million), that her lesbian out-of-wedlock pregnancy is a private matter and it's none of anybody's busines. Apparently, irony isn't big in the Cheney family.
Mary then laid into the #1 religious right leader James Dobson, accusing him of distorting scientific research in order to slam gays.
The religous right has a real problem with Mary. She claims she doesn't want to get political, but she already has, and continues to do so. And in the end, she's daddy's little girl. And everyone knows that daddy is the real president of the United States. If the religious right is trying to figure out why their agenda has disappeared from the Republican agenda, they need go no further than Mary.
It appears the Cheneys are still trying to cram their pregnant lesbian daughter Mary back into the closet. Now the former gay activist, former head of Cheney's re-election campaign, former openly-gay gay-liaison for a major American corporation, is no longer so gay. Now her homosexuality is a no-no, a thing not to be discussed, even when the top allies of the vice president, allies that he outright wooed for six years, attacks his former head of his campaign, and his future grandkid.
Q We're out of time, but a couple of issues I want to raise with you. Your daughter Mary, she's pregnant. All of us are happy. She's going to have a baby. You're going to have another grandchild. Some of the -- some critics, though, are suggesting, for example, a statement from someone representing Focus on the Family:
"Mary Cheney's pregnancy raises the question of what's best for children. Just because it's possible to conceive a child outside of the relationship of a married mother and father, doesn't mean it's best for the child."
Do you want to respond to that?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: No, I don't.
Q She's obviously a good daughter --
THE VICE PRESIDENT: I'm delighted -- I'm delighted I'm about to have a sixth grandchild, Wolf, and obviously think the world of both of my daughters and all of my grandchildren. And I think, frankly, you're out of line with that question.
Q I think all of us appreciate --
THE VICE PRESIDENT: I think you're out of -- I think you're out of line with that question.
Q -- your daughter. We like your daughters. Believe me, I'm very, very sympathetic to Liz and to Mary. I like them both. That was just a question that's come up and it's a responsible, fair question.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: I just fundamentally disagree with your perspective.
Ironically, Cheney hasn't said anything that I've seen to defend his daughter, or his future grandchild, against the incredibly vicious attacks from his own supporters. But when CNN asks about the controversy, suddenly CNN is out of line for bringing the issue up. So, it's okay for Cheney's religious right buddies to openly attack his daughter and grandkid, but it's not okay for the media to ask about the controversy.
He was on ABC's "This Week" this morning and outright refused to take a position on gay adoption. Stephanopoulos pushed him repeatedly, and beyond saying that it was an issue for the states to decide, Brownback said he would not take a position on the merits of the issue itself.
Think about that. An uber-conservative Republican presidential candidate - a candidate representing the religious right "family values" wing of the party - is afraid to stake out a position against gay and lesbian couples adopting, lest it hurt his chances at becoming president.
Part of the problem is the Mary Cheney effect. No one wants to offend the First Lesbian. But it's much larger than that. Gay issues are no longer a sure-fire vote getter for the far-right. In this last election, there were numerous examples where gay marriage bans may have actually helped Democratic pro-gay candidates get out the vote. You can only cry dyke so many times.
Come on, Lynne. Are you kidding? You don't understand the fuss? It's coming from your people, Lynne. The GOP is built on gay-bashing -- and bashing single mothers comes in handy for them, too. Did you ever meet Sam Brownback or Rick Santorum? How about Tony Perkins or James Dobson? In 2004, beating up on gays and lesbians was one of the top tactics of your husband's campaign. You and your husband condoned that -- and now you don't understand the fuss?:
Vice President Dick Cheney's wife, Lynne, is dismissing the fuss over her openly gay daughter's pregnancy, which has rankled conservative groups.
"Well, I think that it's just very lucky for me that I enjoy being a grandmother and I get to do it for the sixth time," Mrs. Cheney said. Their daughter, Mary, and Heather Poe, her partner of 15 years, are expecting a baby in late spring.
"Dick and I both very much looking forward to this new baby," Mrs. Cheney said in an interview to be aired on Fox News Sunday.
She said her daughter will be a "great mom."
Don't forget that the Vice President's wife is a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. She works among the right-wing "thinkers" every day. They are Lynne's people. Lynne Cheney completely understands the fuss about Mary's baby.
