Pictured Lynne Cheney's book.
'I probably do have some gay friends. I've never pressed the point.' — U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia speaking at Harvard University Sept. 28, according to The Harvard Crimson.
'Sexual orgies eliminate social tensions and ought to be encouraged.' — U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia speaking at Harvard University Sept. 28, according to The Harvard Crimson.
'It was the first time I'd ever seen a breast. I'd like to see the other one!' — Village Voice-based gay journalist Michael Musto on Janet Jackson's Super Bowl wardrobe malfunction, to Genre magazine.
'We're all God's children. I think 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, who she was born as. I think if you talk to anybody, it's not a choice.' — Sen. John Kerry in the final presidential debate.
'Senator John Kerry and President Bush devoted four and a half hours and nearly 45,000 words to three detailed and substantial debates. But a single remark by Mr. Kerry, noting that Vice President Dick Cheney's daughter Mary is a lesbian, has shadowed his strong performance and given Republicans an opening to slow the momentum Mr. Kerry got from the debates, some Democrats say.' — The New York Times.
'When he wants to look moderate, Dick Cheney invokes his lesbian daughter, Mary, on the campaign trail. When Republican Senate candidate Alan Keyes viciously attacked their daughter, Dick and Lynne Cheney said nothing. When John Edwards praised their evident love for their daughter, Vice President Cheney said this. 'Let me simply thank the senator for the kind words he said about my family and our daughter. I appreciate that very much.' But now, suddenly, after four debate losses and 18 days until the election, the Cheneys are shocked, shocked, that John Kerry mentioned their daughter in a debate. There is an important lesson here. If you're gay and you want your rights protected by the Republicans, it helps to have a daddy who wants to distract the country from the millions he made from Halliburton, the billions he ran up in debt, and the war he lied us into.' — Paul Begala on CNN Crossfire Oct. 15.
'The episode will put such questions on faster tracks than those they have been moving on. We will learn whether there are voters who don't like the idea of a lesbian woman as a part of the royal family. We will learn whether Mary Cheney, who is working for the election of her father, will emerge as a great expediter of the constitutional amendment—whether she will emerge as the lady who called out that the rights she has are sufficient to guard the freedoms identified with the GOP ticket.' — William F. Buckley on Mary Cheney being mentioned by Sen. Kerry.
'Her daughter is an adult; she's not Amy Carter or Chelsea Clinton thrust into the public eye in tender adolescence. She's not even Margaret Truman at the piano. Mary Cheney is happily in the public eye, an open lesbian whose job before she joined the 2000 campaign was as liaison to the gay community for Coors beer in Colorado. She now holds one of the most important jobs in her dad's reelection effort. And her life partner joined the Cheneys on stage in St. Louis after the debate. She'd have to be in deep denial to think her sexual orientation wasn't going to come up, given that Republicans have made gay marriage a defining issue of the campaign. I also wondered if Mrs. Cheney has talked to Mr. Cheney to get their stories straight. It was dear old Dad who first made Mary Cheney a talking point in the campaign earlier this year, discussing how there is some daylight between his position on the gay marriage amendment and that of the president. And in last week's veep debate, he actually thanked John Edwards for making reference to Mary. This new openness was a departure. During the campaign in 2000, neither Cheney would discuss Mary. Time magazine wrote a piece headlined 'Where's Mary?' about the constant references by the Cheneys to their daughter Elizabeth—the lawyer, wife and mother—and their simultaneous silence on Mary. There was no doubt they loved her, but also no doubt that a reporter would be cast out into darkness for asking about her.' — Margaret Carlson in the L.A. Times.
'She's overreacted to this and treated it as if it's shameful to have this discussion. I think that's a very sad state of affairs. ... I think that it indicates a certain degree of shame with respect to her daughter's sexual preferences. ... It makes me really sad that that's Lynne's response.' — Elizabeth Edwards, wife of John, to ABC Radio.
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Excerpts from Lynne Cheney's 1981 novel Sisters: The women who embraced in the wagon were Adam and Eve crossing a dark cathedral stage—no, Eve and Eve, loving one another as they would not be able to once they ate of the fruit and knew themselves as they truly were. She felt curiously moved, curiously envious of them. She had never to this moment thought Eden a particularly attractive paradise, based as it was on naiveté, but she saw that the women in the cart had a passionate, loving intimacy forever closed to her. How strong it made them. What comfort it gave.
The young woman was heavily powdered, but quite attractive, a curvesome creature, rounded at bosom and cheek. When she smiled, even her teeth seemed puffed and rounded, like tiny ivory pillows.
Let us go away together, away from the anger and imperatives of men. We shall find ourselves a secluded bower where they dare not venture. There will be only the two of us, and we shall linger through long afternoons of sweet retirement. In the evenings I shall read to you while you work your cross-stitch in the firelight. And then we shall go to bed, our bed, my dearest girl.
