# Debate - Kerry and Mary Cheney

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debate-kerry-and-mary-cheney/269277>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [October 14, 2004, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debate-kerry-and-mary-cheney/269277 "2004-10-14T22:36:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 7

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**Author:** ![Orbifold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/779978/32.png) [@Orbifold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orbifold)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 2004, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debate-kerry-and-mary-cheney/269277/121 "2004-10-18T16:15:55Z")

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Apologies for the bump, but I just read [William Safire](http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/18/opinion/18safire.html)’s editorial on the subject and the tortured logic is making my brain scream. I need to vent.

Specifically, I need to vent about this:

> [@](#):
>
> The sleazier purpose of the Kerry-Edwards spotlight on Mary Cheney is to confuse and dismay Bush supporters who believe that same-sex marriage is wrong, to suggest that Bush is as “soft on same-sex” as Kerry is, and thereby to reduce a Bush core constituency’s eagerness to go to the polls.

So, let’s recap. There are gay and lesbian people in all walks of life. Some of them were raised in very conservative families. Not only that, but some of those gay people have excellent relationships with their conservative families, to the point where the gay family members have important roles in their family’s major political campaigns. Not only _that_, but some of those families are so comfortable with their gay and lesbian members that they willingly appear on television with those family members and their same-sex partners.

Pointing that out to “Bush supporters who believe that same-sex marriage is wrong”, however, is “sleazy” in William Safire’s world. It seems that it’s “sleazy” now to point out to people that their cherished beliefs may clash with the _objective, documented reality_ of Mary Cheney’s existence and her happy relationship with her family.

Clearly, William Safire is not part of the “reality-based community”.

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**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 2004, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debate-kerry-and-mary-cheney/269277/122 "2004-10-18T19:23:49Z")

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[Fafblog](http://fafblog.blogspot.com/2004_10_10_fafblog_archive.html#109790968035872001) skewers the issue:

> [@](#):
>
> Dick and Lynne Cheney are right to be outraged, as are sincere and heartfelt gay rights’ advocates Glenn Reynolds and Mickey Kaus. And this outrage comes not because they feel that homosexuality is shameful or icky or full of cooties. It is because they know that the greatest shame one can bring to a lesbian is to note their existence.
> 
> Before John Kerry’s terrible words, Mary Cheney only had to be gay to her family, her friends, the Coors Corporation, the staff of Bush/Cheney Re-Elect, and the gay community at large to whom she acted as a liason. But John Kerry made her gay to the entire world, **effectively making her more gay than ever before.**

😉

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