Salon (from 8/2000): Gays blast Lynne Cheney's denial about her daughter

[kskiska]

Friends say Mary Cheney has publicly declared she's gay. Does mom's discomfort mean Mary will campaign from the GOP's closet?

August 01, 2000 | DENVER -- Lynne Cheney's discomfort with the media's interest in her lesbian daughter Mary, televised nationally over the weekend, threatens to ignite the first firestorm of the so-far superbly scripted Republican convention.

On Sunday, when ABC's Cokie Roberts started to ask the GOP vice presidential nominee's wife about having a daughter who has "declared she's openly gay," an irate Lynne Cheney shot back: "Mary has never declared such a thing." Cheney then blasted the media for its interest in the story, and chided Roberts: "I'm surprised, Cokie, that even you would want to bring it up on this program."

"I have two wonderful daughters. I love them very much. They are bright; they are hard-working; they are decent. And I simply am not going to talk about their personal lives," Cheney told Roberts.

Nationally, many gay leaders were alarmed by Lynne Cheney's remarks. The distaste implied by her use of the term "such a thing" to describe her daughter Mary's sexuality didn't come across as ringing acceptance. And some see it as an attempt to force Mary Cheney -- who has in fact publicly "declared" herself a lesbian, and has worked as the gay and lesbian corporate relations manager for Coors Brewing Co. -- back into the closet, at least on the campaign trail.

(snip)

Some of Mary Cheney's friends agree with gay leaders' take that Lynne Cheney was attempting to shut down the sexuality story by shaming the press out of discussing "private" family matters. "She was trying to divide the world into those who get to ask personal questions about their family, and those who don't," a friend of Mary's said. "She looks like she thinks she has found a way to build an iron cage around the gay canary."

Friends say Mary Cheney came out to her parents at some point in her 20s, and that her father seemed to take it better than her mother. Father and daughter are known to travel together, enjoying hunting and fishing, but Mary Cheney is said to be less close to her mother.

more…
http://dir.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/08/01/mary/index.html

[saracat]

1. So Elizabeth Edwards is right! Lynn is ashamed of Mary!

[BootinUp]

2. Of course thats part of it

And it actually plays to their base as disgusting as that is.