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DearMary.Com Takes the Gay Marriage Battle to Dick Cheney


Vice-President's Lesbian Daughter is Central in Amendment Debate

Activist Web Site Brings the Battle Home to Flip-Flopping Dick

Compiled by GayToday
http://www.DearMary.com

Mary Cheney with her father, Dick Cheney, during the 2000 Republican National Convention
Photo By: Rex Wockner
Washington, D.C.-- A new Web site has thrust U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's openly lesbian daughter Mary to the center of the nationwide debate over gay marriage. DearMary.com is soliciting public letters to Mary Cheney that will be published on the Web site and in nationwide newspaper and magazine ads paid for by money raised via the site.

"DearMary.com brings the battle home for Dick Cheney, literally," said John Aravosis, creator of the Web site and national co-chair of DontAmend.com, a national civil rights organization opposing any effort to add anti-gay amendments to the U.S. Constitution (DearMary.com is a project of DontAmend.com.)

"If the Vice President thinks gay relationships are such a threat to society that we need to amend the U.S. Constitution, then he needs to explain why a lesbian in a same-sex relationship is running his re-election campaign," Aravosis added. "Are we a threat or aren't we?"

Mary Cheney, 34, has been openly lesbian for years, and worked as a "professional homosexual" advocating for the gay community while working as the paid gay liaison at Coors, and while serving on the board of the national Republican gay rights group, the Republican Unity Coalition (RUC). Mary Cheney has since quit the RUC and now runs her father's re-election campaign where she is reportedly earning $100,000 a year (source: Washington Post).

"Mary Cheney is a lesbian in a committed relationship," said Robin Tyler, national co-chair of DontAmend.com. "Even though she cannot take responsibility for her father's actions, she can and should take responsibility for her own. Just because her father is the vice president is beside the point. Is it moral for Vice President Cheney to put his boss before the welfare of his family? It is time for the child to have the courage to publicly stand up to the father and say, 'don't do this, it is just plain wrong.' Other children in far less privileged positions have done it. So, where is Mary Cheney?"

During the 2000 election, then vice presidential candidate Cheney said during a debate that he believed the gay marriage issue should be left to the states. Just a few weeks ago in an interview with the Colorado press, VP Cheney flip-flopped, saying he'd now support a federal constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.

"Vice President Cheney attacks our families, yet seems to think his family is irrelevant to the debate," said Aravosis. "The vice president is a hypocrite. He is selling his daughter to the highest bidder in the name of 'family values.' The American people have a right to know that this man is no role model for our families or our nation."

DearMary.com is a project of DontAmend.com and the Equality Campaign, Inc. We are a national grassroots campaign devoted to stopping any amendment to the US Constitution that would ban marriage equality for the LGBT community. DontAmend.com was founded by veteran civil rights advocates Robin Tyler and John Aravosis, who also where cofounders of the successful StopDrLaura.com campaign targeting anti-gay radio host Dr. Laura Schlessinger.
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Related Sites
DearMary.com

DontAmend.com