All in the Cheney family
CONGRATULATIONS to Mary Cheney and Heather Poe. A couple for 15 years, the daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney and her partner have decided to bring a child into the world, with Mary Cheney due to deliver in the spring. Like any couple choosing to become parents, they must have concluded that the joy of raising a child outweighs the uncertainties of introducing it to a planet threatened by global warming, nuclear proliferation, and other terrors of the modern world.
Also, Mary Cheney, 37, is a vice president for AOL, and Heather Poe, 45, is a former forest ranger, so the couple need not worry that their child will suffer financially, as do many of the 37 percent of babies born out of wedlock in the United States.
Cheney and Poe cannot rear their child within the benefits of marriage because they do not live in Massachusetts, the only state that has legalized same-sex marriages. The couple's home state of Virginia, by contrast, not only bans gay marriage but also forbids gay adoption, and has a law that casts doubt on the ability of gay couples to write end-of-life medical directives or wills together. This is a blunt example of how prejudicial policies diminish the ordinary lives of gay couples.
By all evidence, Dick Cheney is a loyal father, who has mortared together a position on homosexuality that sets him apart from many fellow conservatives. During the 2004 campaign, he said: "Freedom means freedom for everyone. People ought to be able to enter into any kind of relationship they want to." Dick Cheney might have come by his open-mindedness even if his daughter were not a lesbian, but there is no question that knowing gays and lesbians, whether as family members, friends, or acquaintances, helps break down the ignorance that prejudice feeds on.
Cheney has said he disagrees with President Bush's support for a constitutional amendment that would keep his daughter and Poe from marrying in any state, including Massachusetts. Since the constitutional amendment apparently is going nowhere in Congress, Massachusetts is likely to continue to be a pioneer -- and an alternative for couples like Cheney and Poe if they lose patience with the restrictive laws of their own states.
One encouraging feature of the world their baby will grow up in is that it will almost certainly be more accepting of gays and lesbians, including as spouses and parents. That comes through in every opinion poll about gays and gay marriage: younger persons surveyed are more tolerant.
Wherever Cheney and Poe choose to make their home, it will be difficult for them to escape the public attention that their celebrity status will inevitably draw. The best baby shower gift for them may be privacy and time -- because time will encourage the good common sense of young people to dawn on the rest of the nation.
