John Kerry was wrong to invoke Mary Cheney's name in last weeks debate and the Republican response has been absurd. Both are possible.
I gasped when Kerry answered a question on whether gayness is a choice by saying "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." It was an attack because it felt like an attack. No matter Kerry's stance on homosexuality (though it should be noted that he finished off his answer by reaffirming, yet again, that marriage is just for a man and a woman), he knew full well that for many Americans calling someone a lesbian raises questions about that person's decency and morality and worth as a person. He hung her out as a target, and it really matters little if he thinks the shots sure to follow are justified. And Mary being "out", whatever that means, doesn't provide much coverage. A failure to be ashamed of who I am doesn't mean that the public discussion of it is fair game. It's personal and sensitive, and if a legitimate point of it may be made in public arena, it should treated as such, as Edwards did in his debate with Cheney.
The long and the short of it is that Kerry used Mary Cheney as a pawn to make a political point. He used a daughter to score points against her father. That just isn't right. And no amount of laughably hypocritical reaction on the part of the political opposition is gonna make it so.
I gasped when Kerry answered a question on whether gayness is a choice by saying "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." It was an attack because it felt like an attack. No matter Kerry's stance on homosexuality (though it should be noted that he finished off his answer by reaffirming, yet again, that marriage is just for a man and a woman), he knew full well that for many Americans calling someone a lesbian raises questions about that person's decency and morality and worth as a person. He hung her out as a target, and it really matters little if he thinks the shots sure to follow are justified. And Mary being "out", whatever that means, doesn't provide much coverage. A failure to be ashamed of who I am doesn't mean that the public discussion of it is fair game. It's personal and sensitive, and if a legitimate point of it may be made in public arena, it should treated as such, as Edwards did in his debate with Cheney.
The long and the short of it is that Kerry used Mary Cheney as a pawn to make a political point. He used a daughter to score points against her father. That just isn't right. And no amount of laughably hypocritical reaction on the part of the political opposition is gonna make it so.
3:07 PM
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