Sunday, November 17, 2013

Family Feud

Liz Cheney, daughter of the former vice president, has moved to Wyoming and is making a run for the Senate. The stallwart Republican who currently has the seat is, shall we say, not so happy about this intra-Republican challenge from a carpet bagger.  And of course, in her effort to position herself on the far side of right, Liz Cheney has come out against marriage equality.

Thing is, Liz has a sister, Mary, who is gay, and who is married.  And Mary and her wife Heather have responded, as one does in this era, on Facebook.

From Joe.My.God:
"I was watching my sister-in-law on Fox News Sunday (yes Liz, in fifteen states and the District of Columbia you are my sister-in-law) and was very disappointed to hear her say 'I do believe in the traditional definition of marriage.' Liz has been a guest in our home, has spent time and shared holidays with our children, and when Mary and I got married in 2012 - she didn't hesitate to tell us how happy she was for us. To have her now say she doesn't support our right to marry is offensive to say the least. I can't help but wonder how Liz would feel if as she moved from state to state, she discovered that her family was protected in one but not the other. I always thought freedom meant freedom for EVERYONE." - Heather Poe, wife of Mary Cheney, writing today on her Facebook page. 
"Couldn't have said it better myself. Liz - this isn't just an issue on which we disagree - you're just wrong - and on the wrong side of history." - Mary Cheney, in an addendum to the above, which she re-posted to her own Facebook page.

7 comments:

8thday said...

Should make for really fun Thanksgiving conversation at the Cheney dinner table.

johnieb said...

Thanks for the find, IT. Hope y'all are well.

IT said...

We're doing great, Johnieb.

8th day, I know! AWKWARD, much?

dr.primrose said...

The story has now hit the mainstream press, or at least the L.A. Times -- Liz Cheney's latest gay-marriage comments stoke family feud.

The parents have now weighed in:

"Liz has always believed in the traditional definition of marriage. She has also always treated her sister and her sister's family with love and respect, exactly as she should have done. Compassion is called for, even when there is disagreement about such a fundamental matter and Liz's many kindnesses shouldn’t be used to distort her position."

No parental support for Mary, the lesbian daughter, at all. I think the parents could have said something supportive. I think they come across as real jerks.

dr.primrose said...

And here's a stronger opinion piece from the L.A. Times -- Liz Cheney sells out gay sister for shot at U.S. Senate seat.

From this article:

"What kind of woman sells out her sister for a shot at a U.S. Senate seat?

"How do you attend your gay sister's wedding, embrace her wife as a member of the family and their children as your niece and nephew, then turn around and tell the nation you oppose gay marriage?

"For this alone, Liz Cheney, who is running for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination in Wyoming against a longtime conservative incumbent, deserves to lose."

IT said...

...and Papa Dick comes out in favor of Liz, implicitly scolding Mary. Because of COURSE Liz doesn't believe in teh Gayz getting married!

Frank Bruni writes,

If Liz Cheney, whose bid for the Senate has always had a stench of extreme opportunism, wants to discuss traditions and values, I’m all for it. Let’s start here: Isn’t there a tradition of close-knit family members’ taking care not to wound one another? Is there not value in that?...
This feels to me like a political maneuver tailored to a conservative electorate, and an unnecessary maneuver at that, with the risk of making her seem inauthentic and uncharitable to Wyoming voters who’ve had more than a decade to absorb her dad’s socially moderate views. Gay marriage won’t be those voters’ primary, secondary or tertiary issue, anyway.

In a statement released Monday, Dick and Lynne Cheney insisted that Liz had “always believed in the traditional definition of marriage.” I suppose that’s the politically prudent tack at this point, but now the Cheneys’ support for gay marriage, so moving over the years, is buried beneath a family feud. Their statement paid less attention to Mary, who’s not running for anything, not carrying her parents’ ambitions into a new era.

One word stood out. They said that Liz had shown Mary “compassion.” This echoed a statement of Liz’s own, in which she noted that she had “always tried to be compassionate” toward Mary and her family. What a curious vocabulary. It was as if they were all talking about some charity case.

I hope the Cheneys find their way out of this. It’s an ugly spot that Liz, in all her compassion, has put them in.

dr.primrose said...

Candace Gingrich (we all remember the same situation 15 years ago with Candace and Newt, dont' we?) has now weighed in on the Cheney sisters' spat - Cheney sisters' gay-marriage fight: A Gingrich has some advice.