Cheney, wife differ on gay marriage amendment

WASHINGTON -- Lynne Cheney, the vice president's wife and the mother of a lesbian, said yesterday that states should have the final say over the legal status of personal relationships.

That stance puts her at odds with Vice President Dick Cheney on the need for the constitutional amendment under debate in the Senate that effectively would ban gay marriage.

"I think that the constitutional amendment discussion will give us an opportunity to look for ways to discuss [how] we can keep the authority of the states intact," Cheney told CNN's "Late Edition."

The Senate began debate Friday on an amendment that defines marriage as a union of a man and woman as husband and wife.

Supporters acknowledge the proposal is endorsed by about half the Senate, well short of the two-thirds needed to approve a change in the Constitution. But a vote would put legislators on the spot in an election year as they seek to balance backing traditional marriage and gay rights.

The vice president has two daughters, both of whom are working in his campaign. The Cheneys' lesbian daughter, Mary, is director of vice presidential operations for the Bush-Cheney reelection 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.

She has been less visible this year while traveling with the vice president or working at campaign headquarters. As the election nears, she will play a more public role, campaign aides said.

President Bush said in his weekly radio address Saturday that legalizing gay marriage would redefine the most fundamental institution of civilization. A constitutional amendment is needed to protect marriage, he said.

During his 2000 vice presidential campaign, 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.

When the Massachusetts high court ruled last year that gay couples can wed, the issue became a hot political topic. Republicans hope it will lure votes from the Democratic presidential ticket.

Both Bush and Cheney have expressed support this year for the proposed constitutional amendment. Their Democratic rivals, Senators John F. Kerry of Massachusetts and John Edwards of North Carolina, oppose the amendment. Both Democrats also oppose gay marriage but defend a gay couple's right to the same legal protections as those conferred in marriage.

Asked yesterday about her husband's stand on gay marriage in 2004, Cheney said, "I thought that the formulation he used in 2000 was very good."

"First of all, to be clear that people should be free to enter into their relationships that they choose. And secondly, to recognize what's historically been the situation, that when it comes to conferring legal status on relationships, that is a matter left to the states," she said.