Posted on 08/24/2004 1:43:08 PM PDT by ambrose
Posted on Tue, Aug. 24, 2004
Cheney Backs Freedom for Gay Relationships
TODD DVORAK
Associated Press
DAVENPORT, Iowa - Vice President Dick Cheney, whose daughter Mary is a lesbian, spoke supportively about gay relationships on Tuesday, saying "freedom means freedom for everyone."
At a campaign rally in this Mississippi River town, Cheney was asked about his stand on gay marriage - an issue for which his boss, President Bush, has pushed for a constitutional amendment to ban such unions.
"Lynne and I have a gay daughter, so it's an issue our family is very familiar with," Cheney said. "With the respect to the question of relationships, my general view is freedom means freedom for everyone ... People ought to be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to.
"The question that comes up with the issue of marriage is what kind of official sanction or approval is going to be granted by government? Historically, that's been a relationship that has been handled by the states. The states have made that fundamental decision of what constitutes a marriage," he said.
Bush backs a constitutional amendment prohibiting gay marriage, a move Cheney says was prompted by various judicial rulings, including the action in Massachusetts that made gay marriage legal.
"I think his perception was that the courts, in effect, were beginning to change, without allowing the people to be involved," Cheney said. "The courts were making the judgment for the entire country."
That stand put Cheney at odds with his wife. Last month, Lynne Cheney said states should have the final say over the legal status of personal relationships, a comment that came just days before the Senate failed to back the ban.
Cheney said the amendment did not have the votes to pass, but he also said the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which President Clinton signed into law in 1996, may be sufficient to resolve the issue.
The Cheneys have two daughters, both of whom are working on the campaign. Mary Cheney is director of vice presidential operations for the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign. She held a public role as her father's assistant in the 2000 campaign and helped the GOP recruit gay voters during the 2002 midterm elections.
During the 2000 campaign, vice presidential candidate Dick Cheney took the position that states should decide legal issues about personal relationships and that people should be free to enter relationships of their choosing.
While Bush and Cheney back the proposed constitutional amendment, their Democratic rivals, Sens. John Kerry of Massachusetts and John Edwards of North Carolina, oppose the amendment.
The Democrats also oppose gay marriage, but defend a gay couple's rights to the same legal protections as those conferred in marriage.
Since you have been reduced to hissing and spitting names at me I see no reason to continue this conversation. If I were really a troll you would have me zotted but I am not a woman so it is not your place to strike my heel. Slither back under your rock, viper.
Homosexual relationships certainly create undefined legal status, particularly if children are involved, or if the homosexual couple wants to have children by another father or mother.
As long as the members are sufficiently removed this is permitted. However, if you get too close the risk for degeneration increases dramatically.
I think what ytou're saying is a risk of birth defects and disease. Sex between close family members, even consenting, could be said to be a public health hazard. Yet homosexual behavior is a horrible public health hazard, responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.
My point is that we treat homosexual relationships differently from other forms of relationships. We do so because there is immense social pressure to do so. If there were similar social pressure to treat animal-human relationships as normal, then there would be an "Friends of Interspecies Love" organization.
I guess it is about time for you to post something on DU...they probably are missing you by now...bu-BYE TROLL!!!
Well put!
Still here?
Unbelievable. That's like someone who doesn't smoke (thinks its wrong) supporting smoker's rights.
You were the one who turned tail and ran...
I'm right here. BTW I notice that your bio pretty much sums up all that's in your head.
Let me be the first to point you in the way of Romans 1, for one passage.
It isn't the case, though, that people go to hell for being gay, or gambling, or cheating on their spouse, or killing someone. A person can have done all of these things and go to heaven if they have repented and believe that God will forgive them. A person could also have been a true believer and then fall away to any of these sins and still reach heaven. It's simplistic to say someone goes to hell for committing any one sin.
I've been wondering. Do you avoid reasoned argument because you're too stupid to engage in it or are you just a coward? Your baseless accusations and pathetic insults are boring.
Kerry and Cheney have the same position on GAy Marriage....
LEAVe to the states .........VS FMA
Cheney's opinions on gay marriage are a non-story.
He is not the leader of the country, and I doubt
that whatever policy discussions on it that may occur
have significant input from this vice president.
The religious right should focus on re-electing
a friendly president, not on nitpicking the nuances
of his veep's statements. If they want to win the
election, that is.
Well, there's the DU special; its got eggs, sausage, troll, troll, jam and troll; there's not much troll in that!
Uh, don't you have ANYTHING without any troll in it whatsoever?
Well, the FreeRepublic special used to not have any troll in it, but come election time, even it gets contaminated by some troll every now and then...
Omigod! You sound just like Jesus. Did you channel that little bit through the Holy Spirit?
A final goodbye to you little troll...
I'll check on you tomorrow, oh holy one, and see how you're coming with that zot request.
Stop blaming Christians. Cheney brought this up. We didn't. We knew his daughter is a lesbian but we didn't choose to make that sad reality a political issue. We respected his family privacy to deal with his own family's problems. HE IS THE ONE DRAGGING THIS INTO PUBLIC DEBATE! We are telling Dick Cheney and everyone else Dick Cheney's seal of approval on homosexuality does not make homosexuality acceptable to us.
I don't make public speeches about my sex habits or those of my family. I don't know why anyone's private sex habits are an issue for political speeches.
I agree. I use the word homosexual because that his the correct name for the lifestyle choice. We amused hubby's family at our recent reunion by announcing that he and I have had a gay marriage for almost 29 years!
Uh, how carefully did you read this story? Cheney
"was asked" about the issue, and he responded honestly.
He is not pushing the gay agenda in any way.
If "Christians" continue to shoot their friends in the
back, or refuse to support them in a crunch, they deserve
what would surely come to them in a Kerry administration.
People with your mindset need to wake up and understand the political world as it really is, not as you wish it to be.
The political aspect of the world offers us flawed choices that are no more perfect than any other aspect of the world. In your terms, we are in a "fallen condition." Morally serious Christians try to grapple with that and make the best of our fallen world. They don't try to evade their moral responsibilities by saying everyone who doesn't see things their way is worthless.
Ohforcryinoutloud! Mary is an ADULT! Her parents cannot control what she does! They can only watch as she makes her choices and lives with the consequences. Even the most diligent parents can lose their kids if their kids get involved in activities that are seductive to their inquisitive minds.
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