Mary Cheney

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Mary Claire Cheney (born March 14, 1969) is the second daughter of Dick Cheney, the Vice President of the United States, and his wife, Lynne Cheney. She currently lives in Conifer, Colorado and Great Falls, Virginia.

1 Family, education and career
2 Attention to Cheney's sexuality
3 2004 re-election campaign
4 2006 interview
5 Pregnancy
6 Bibliography
7 External links
8 References

[edit] Family, education and career

Cheney attended McLean High School in McLean, Virginia, graduating in the class of 1987. Her elder sister, Elizabeth, is a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State. Since 1991, she has been in a long-term relationship with Heather Poe.

Mary Cheney graduated in 1991 from Colorado College (also the alma mater of her mother) in Colorado Springs, Colorado and earned a graduate business degree from the University of Denver in 2002. In 1993, she became one of the first employees of the Colorado Rockies baseball team, working in promotions when the team began playing in Denver. Thereafter she was a public relations manager for the Coors Brewing Company and worked as a gay and lesbian outreach coordinator, helping to end a national gay boycott of Coors.

She was one of her father's top campaign aides and closest confidantes. In July 2003 she became the director of vice presidential operations for the Bush-Cheney 2004 Presidential re-election campaign.

[edit] Attention to Cheney's sexuality

Mary Cheney's sexual orientation as a lesbian has become a source of increasing public attention because of her political involvement with the Republican Party and because of the burgeoning same-sex marriage debate.

In 2000, the Bush-Cheney campaign freely discussed Elizabeth Cheney's marriage and children, but treated Mary Cheney's private life as off-limits.^[1] Nevertheless, because her lesbianism was publicly known, it was seen as bolstering the image of the Republican ticket as "compassionate conservatives".^[2] During an interview with Lynne Cheney, Cokie Roberts brought up the topic of Mary's having declared herself a lesbian. "She has declared no such thing," Lynne Cheney responded and scolded Roberts for breaching journalistic etiquette.^[3]

In 2002, she joined the gay-friendly Republican Unity Coalition and said that sexual orientation should be "a non-issue for the Republican Party", with a goal of "equality for all gay and lesbian Americans." Mary resigned from the RUC's board and in July 2003 became the director of vice presidential operations for the Bush-Cheney 2004 Presidential re-election campaign.

In 2004, public attention refocused on Mary's sexuality when the Bush administration supported the Federal Marriage Amendment, a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution that would limit marriage to heterosexual couples and also ban civil unions and domestic partnership benefits. Mary Cheney did not publicly express her opinion of the amendment until her autobiography, Now It's My Turn, where she stated her opposition to the amendment, yet felt it important to support the president's re-election bid as she felt only he was capable of protecting the country from terrorist attacks. Vice President Cheney, when asked during a campaign appearance about same-sex marriage, reiterated the position he took in the 2000 campaign, that the issue should be handled by the states. He added, though, that President Bush determined his administration's policies and his policy supported the Federal Marriage Amendment.^[4]

[edit] 2004 re-election campaign

The subject of Mary Cheney's sexuality arose again during the 2004 presidential election debates.

Both presidential candidate John Kerry and vice-presidential candidate John Edwards mentioned her lesbianism when questioned regarding homosexuality issues. Edwards discussed Mary Cheney after moderator Gwen Ifill asked a question to the Vice President in which his daughter was indirectly mentioned:

"I want to read something you said four years ago at this very setting: 'Freedom means freedom for everybody.' You said it again recently when you were asked about legalizing same-sex unions. And you used your family's experience as a context for your remarks. Can you describe then your administration's support for a constitutional ban on same-sex unions?"^[5]

Vice President Cheney responded to Edwards' reference to Mary without continuing the same-sex marriage discussion:

Cheney Well, Gwen, let me simply thank the senator for the kind words he said about my family and our daughter. I appreciate that very much.

Ifill: That's it?

Cheney: That's it."^[6]

At the end of the debate, Mary appeared on the podium with her partner and the rest of the family. During the third and final presidential debate, the debate moderator asked, "Do you believe homosexuality is a choice?" John Kerry replied, "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." This prompted an angry response from both Lynne and Dick Cheney. "You saw a man who will say and do anything to get elected," Lynne Cheney said at a campaign appearance in Florida the day after the debate.

[edit] 2006 interview

Mary Cheney left the public spotlight after the 2004 election until May 4, 2006, when she gave an interview with Diane Sawyer for ABC News' Primetime program.^[7] Cheney did the interview to garner publicity for her new autobiography titled Now It's My Turn. She discusses how she came out to her parents, noting her father's initial reaction: "You know, look, you're my daughter and I love you and I just want you to be happy." She also discusses her relationship with her partner, Heather Poe.

Gay rights advocates criticized her for waiting until after the 2004 election to voice her disapproval of George W. Bush's positions on gay rights. During Mary Cheney's May 19, 2006 appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman, Letterman addressed some of the issues raised by the gay community. He questioned Cheney on why she waited two years after the 2004 election to speak publicly about gay marriage and rights.^[8]

[edit] Pregnancy

In December 2006, Mary Cheney was reported to be pregnant.^[9] Cheney and Poe are said to be "ecstatic" about the baby, due in late spring 2007. "The vice president and Mrs. Cheney are looking forward with eager anticipation to the arrival of their sixth grandchild," spokesman Lea Anne McBride said on December 5. Some conservatives were critical, however. The Concerned Women for America called the pregnancy "unconscionable" and said that the news would damage the stature of the Bush administration among conservatives.^[10]

On January 31, 2007, in a forum by Glamour Magazine at Barnard College of Columbia University, Mary Cheney stated that: "This is a baby," and "This is a blessing from God. It is not a political statement. It is not a prop to be used in a debate by people on either side of an issue. It is my child."^[11]

Cindi Leive, the editor in chief of Glamour, asked Cheney if she had anything to say to critics like Dr. James Dobson. Cheney noted Dr. Dobson's distortions of the research he cited and added: "Every piece of remotely responsible research that has been done in the last 20 years has shown there is no difference between children raised by same-sex parents and children raised by opposite-sex parents; what matters is being raised in a stable, loving environment." She also said that Dobson was entitled to his opinion, "but he's not someone whose endorsement I have ever drastically sought."^[12]