Why Doesn’t the Vice President Defend His Daugher?
January 25, 2007: I don’t get the Cheney’s. In past posts, I, along with other’s in the LGBT community, praised the Vice President and his wife for the positive things they’ve said about their openly lesbian daughter Mary’s pregnancy.
But not everyone has been positive. The far right has viciously attacked Mary for bringing a child into this world (see my previous posts for some of the ugliest things they’ve had to say).
Recently, Wolf Blitzer asked the Vice President to respond to the vicious things religious and social conservatives have said about his daughter. Instead of defending his youngest child, Cheney attacked Blitzer for bringing up the subject!
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.
So, what’s up with the Vice President? Why was it wrong to give him an opportunity to defend his daughter? Why is Cheney criticizing Blitzer, instead of conservatives like Bill O’Reilly, who said that gay parents like Mary Cheney are “taking Mother Nature and…throwing it right out the window?” Or Paul Cameron who said “Her pregnancy is further evidence that participation in homosexual activity distorts value systems, inducing practitioners to harm the commonweal. Our society already has too many children born without the benefits of marriage; Cheney’s action is not only a bad example, but poor treatment of an innocent child?” Or James Dobson who wrote “With all due respect to Cheney and her partner, Heather Poe, the majority of more than 30 years of social-science evidence indicates that children do best on every measure of well-being when raised by their married mother and father?” Or Robert Knight who said ” “I think it’s tragic that a child has been conceived with the express purpose of denying it a father?”
As a parent myself, I don’t understand how Mr. Cheney doesn’t defend his daughter against attacks like that.
Nor do I get why he’s mad at Blitzer for discussing his daughter in a totally sympathetic light.
If I were Mary Cheney, I’d be devasted by my father’s actions. I’m so sorry for her. I hope she offers her child unconditional love and that she stands to defend him or her against attacks like the ones she’s suffered.