The fact that Dick Cheney, George W. Bush's choice as a vice presidential running mate, reportedly has a lesbian daughter is bound to further confound the already complex relationship between gays and lesbians and the Republican Party.
Gays and lesbians of all political persuasions should watch carefully over the coming weeks how the reported lesbianism of Cheney's daughter affects—or fails to affect—the position of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney on controversial issues that matter so deeply to our community.
What gays and lesbians should not do, however, is allow the Republican Party to use Cheney's daughter as a way to promote its much-trumpeted image of "compassionate conservatism" without demanding more in return than a few photo ops and the covert winking of its political eye.
Some moderate Republicans, and particularly gay Republicans, are already pointing to a string of events they say signifies a marked shift toward a more gay-friendly Republican Party.
Some of the signs that the GOP is kinder and gentler to gays and lesbians, boosters say, is the fact that the only openly Republican member of Congress, Jim Kolbe of Arizona, was allowed to take the stage and deliver a three-minute speech at the Republican National Convention ( even if it was on free trade, not gay rights ) ; that Republican strategist and Bush advisor Mary Matalin was the guest at a Log Cabin luncheon during the convention; and that this year's convention included 18 openly gay delegates and alternates, 4.5 times the number who attended the last convention.
But the reported lesbianism of Dick Cheney's daughter, Mary, is clearly at the top of the laundry list of supposed indicators that the party is more welcoming, or at least less hostile, to gays and lesbians.
In a presidential election year, very little is left unexamined in either the public or personal lives of presidential and vice presidential candidates. Reports that Mary Cheney is a lesbian are widespread and said to be well-known in political circles. Indeed, many believe Cheney has previously demurred from his own bid for the Republican presidential nomination at least in part due to concerns over the publicity that a lesbian daughter would stir up.
It is inconceivable that George W. Bush did not know that Mary Cheney is a lesbian. The simple fact that he chose Dick Cheney anyway, analysts say, is itself evidence of a more lenient and open-minded Republican Party.
This valid point cannot be ignored. It's difficult, if not impossible, to imagine a top-of-the-ticket Republican candidate with a gay or lesbian family member sharing the stage with rabidly homophobic Pat Robertson just a few years ago in 1992. The fact that Roberston is now off the stage and a lesbian family member might at times take to the public stage to stump for her Republican vice-presidential wannabe father is a remarkable reversal. Only the most demagogic partisan Democrat would deny this.
But it remains to be seen how the Republican party in general, and the Cheney's in particular, respond to the lesbian daughter factor.
My fear is that they will try to manipulate Mary Cheney's lesbianism to woo moderate voters without actually altering any of their strongly anti-gay and anti-lesbian stances.
We've already seen some foreshadowing of just how they might achieve that.
Lynne Cheney's July 30 appearance on ABC's This Week was the perfect example. Host Cokie Roberts tried to ask about Mary Cheney, "a daughter who has now declared that she is openly gay," only to be cut off by Mrs. Cheney, who denied her daughter has done any such thing.
Mrs. Cheney went on to castigate the horribly nosy press in general, and Cokie Roberts in particular. "I'm appalled at the media interest in one of my daughters," a supposedly indignant Mrs. Cheney protested. "And I simply am not going to talk about their personal lives. And I'm surprised, Cokie, that even you would bring it up on this program."
All of which got Cokie Roberts stuttering something about "just asking as a mother" if Mrs. Cheney has any concerns about the campaign. To which, of course, the adept Mother Cheney chimed in about leadership and education and grandchildren. And said nothing at all about lesbian daughters. Mrs. Cheney's clever appeal to privacy has been echoed by Bush spokespeople, pleading to inquisitive reporters to "respect" the private lives of the Cheney daughters.
Meanwhile, of course, the Bush's and Cheney's and the Republican party heads know full well that the press, and others, will raise the issue of Mary Cheney's lesbianism. In reality, that's exactly what they want the press to do—at least to a certain degree. That way, they are assured that a coded, subtle message goes out to moderate voters: How can the Republican Party be as anti-gay, and as right-wing in general, as the Democrats try to paint them if the No. 2 man on the ticket has a close lesbian daughter? Wink, wink.
At the same time, they don't want to actually have to answer any hard questions about how having a lesbian daughter jives with the party's still blatantly anti-gay and anti-lesbian politics. That way, they can send a different coded message to the right wingers and conservatives: Hey guys, she's my daughter, you know, and, well, we believe in family values, and besides, look at our voting records and the party platform. Wink again.
While the Republican image gurus are trying to get all the dust out of their eyes, gay and lesbian voters should, in fact, look without blinking at the Republican platform, and the voting records of Bush and Cheney —all of which are virulently anti-gay.
Gays and lesbians would also do well to remember that just because a politician has a gay or lesbian family member, it doesn't necessarily translate into enlightened views on gay and lesbian issues.
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and Californian Pete Knight —sponsor of the recently-passed anti-gay marriage initiative there—afford just two examples.
The Republicans have made gay and lesbian issues a public policy debate not by choosing a vice presidential candidate who has a lesbian daughter, but by incorporating anti-gay language and initiatives into the very core of their party politics. It is not only acceptable, but necessary, to continue to ask the No. 2 man in the party how he reconciles his relationship to his lesbian daughter with the party's hostile attack on every other gay and lesbian person's private lives.
Someone should let Cokie know that, too.
