Mary Cheney and Partner Are About to Be Moms

Washington Post ^ | December 6, 2006 | Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts

[West Coast Conservative]

Mary Cheney, the vice president's openly gay daughter, is pregnant. She and her partner of 15 years, Heather Poe, are "ecstatic" about the baby, due in late spring, said a source close to the couple.

It's a baby boom for grandparents Dick and Lynne Cheney: Their older daughter, Elizabeth, went on leave as deputy assistant secretary of state before having her fifth child in July. "The vice president and Mrs. Cheney are looking forward with eager anticipation to the arrival of their sixth grandchild," spokesman Lea Anne McBride said last night.

Cheney, 37, was a key aide to her father during the 2004 reelection campaign and now is vice president for consumer advocacy at AOL. Poe, 45, a former park ranger, is renovating their Great Falls home.

News of the pregnancy will undoubtedly reignite the debate about gay marriage. During the campaign, Mary Cheney was criticized by gay activists for not being more publicly supportive of same-sex marriage. Her father said people "ought to be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to" but deferred to the president's policy supporting a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages. Cheney herself called the proposed amendment "a gross affront to gays and lesbians everywhere" in her book, "Now It's My Turn: A Daughter's Chronicle of Political Life," which was published in May.

Cheney has described her relationship with Poe -- whom she took to last year's White House dinner honoring Prince Charles and Camilla-- as a marriage. The two met in 1988 while playing ice hockey and began dating four years later. They moved from Colorado to Virginia a year ago to be closer to Cheney's family.

[null and void]

Another child forced to live without a father.

Forced? The kid could always leave!

[rintense]

Once again, the hollier-than-thou crowd emerges to judge others. Conservatives scream the government should stay outta people's personal lives, bedrooms, etc- but then say artifical forms of reproduction should be made illegal? Unreal.

[linda_22003]

Well, you know, small government - unless it's for something we want. ;)

[Antoninus]

What you are NOT entitled to is to damn everybody to hell who doesn't believe exactly like you do.

I'll leave that to the Almighty. As you say, I'm not competent to do so.

I am, however, happy to voice my opinion on this vile, counterintuitive rot that afflicts the brains of so many people who should know better. The disease that first afflicted many in the 1950s and 60s (tradition=bad, change=good, sex=all the time, anywhere, with anyone, no consequences, Judeo-Christian values=for squares & losers) continues to spread today.

Regardless of what the APA says today (as opposed to 30 years ago), Same Sex Attraction Disorder is a mental illness. Two men/two women playing house together are NOT a married couple and never will be, no matter how many laws they twist and no matter how many non-consenting minors they force to be part of the pantomime show.

[Antoninus]

I'm sick to death of you moralizing prigs on this forum.

No one's forcing you to stay....

[rintense]

*SIGH*

So true.

[Howlin]

I've been here longer than you have, and I'll stay and say whatever I want.

Stop trying to shove your morals down everybody's throat; you sounds like a damn liberal.

[Howlin]

They LOVE this Cheney story, don't they?

And they no longer want to stay out of people's bedrooms, my friends; they want US to do as they would do or they believe we surely will go to hell.

*Shudder*


I'm happy for Mary; she seems like a special person and the baby is sure getting two great grandparents!

[napscoordinator]

Regardless of what the APA says today (as opposed to 30 years ago), Same Sex Attraction Disorder is a mental illness.



What studies have you done? I am not familiar of your work. sarc.

[Howlin]

Same Sex Attraction Disorder is a mental illness.

So is Prigness.

[Antoninus]

I've been here longer than you have, and I'll stay and say whatever I want.

Nobody said you couldn't. You said you were "sick to death" of some posters on here. If that were truly the case, I'd advise you to abstain from reading FR for a while, lest you die.

Stop trying to shove your morals down everybody's throat; you sounds like a damn liberal.

Us Social Conservatives aren't the ones shoving things down others' throats.... Homo-"marriage" is what's being shoved down America's throat. You remember, the issue that gets rejected EVERYWHERE its put to a vote and not imposed by judicial tyranny. D@mn those moralizing voters!

[linn37]

I don't agree with her lifestyle but as long as she is not pushing it on me I see no reason to get into her business.

[streetpreacher]

He's not a "proud" papa; he's a sperm donor that doesn't mind his offspring being raised by moral degenerates.

[snugs]

Absolutely

[Howlin]

You said you were "sick to death" of some posters on here.

Yeah, I am; the Prude Patrol; albeit there are very few of you, but you seem to swarm threads like these, hoping, I'm sure, to make yourself feel morally superior to the great unwashed masses below you.

If that were truly the case, I'd advise you to abstain from reading FR for a while, lest you die.

No way; there are more of us SANE people than there are of you prigs.

[null and void]

But I also believe that Mary Cheney's decision to conceive with her partner while her father is still in the spotlight in some ways does more to promote gay parenting than mere activism, but making it seem normal.

She's 37. Trust me on this one, if she waits much longer she'll be too worn out to keep up with a kid.

My future daughter was born when we were 38, my son when we were 40. We're really too tired to keep up with teenagers!

[napscoordinator]

I hardly think that Mary Cheney is trying to "sell" this to the public. Honestly, I believe she is just trying to have a baby. I sure am glad she decided to have it. I just don't see the big deal on this. I guess it could be because I just don't think America is going to fall apart because a lesbian couple is going to raise a kid. It would be different perhaps if she was the first one...that would be a story for sure, but this has been going on forever (except the way she got pregnant).

[streetpreacher]

They're both bulls which means they cancel each other out.

I suppose that makes them 2 gay men trapped in two lesbians bodies.

[meandog]

I would rather not see any of them. Just because Mary is the vice presidents daughter does not change the meaning of sin. The child, if it lives will have a difficult time in society if the future does not change.

Pardon me, but that is just a bit over the zealot line...as probably on the order of 40 percent of the children born in the U.S. were technically conceived in "sin"...(and I really don't believe that a loving God cares how they got here). I don't believe her child will suffer, either, as she has one heck of a protective grandfather to shelter her. Mary Cheney did not "choose" to be what she is anymore than your or I could choose being left-handed or right-handed.

[snugs]

Whilst politically for her father the timing may not be great I agree to wait any longer would not be advisable if she wants children.

This is her choice and even if I do not agree with it she has the right to make that choice and at the end of the day I am sure that despite the flack the VP will take he will love this child as much as the other 5 and probably even more so as the first child from what is received wisdom his favourite daughter, or the daughter that shares his outdoor pursuits.