Mary Cheney isn't an issue in this election

Mary Cheney is a lesbian, and we all know it. Now let's move on with this election. In the final presidential debate, on Oct. 13, President George W. Bush was asked whether he believed that homosexuality is a choice. After Bush's convoluted answer, challenger John Kerry said he believes sexual preference is inborn. "And I think if you were to talk to Dick Cheney's daughter, who is a lesbian, she would tell you that she's being who she was, she's being who she was born as," Kerry stated.

The Cheney family responded quickly, and within hours, Lynne Cheney, Dick Cheney's wife, gave a public statement in which she personally attacked Kerry and condemned the comment as inappropriate. She called the statement, "a cheap and tawdry political trick…The only thing I can conclude is [that Kerry is] not a good man," according to The Washington Post's article, Transcript: Third Presidential Debate. Cheney also responded to the comment, although he took a less personal approach than his wife. "You saw a man who will say and do anything in order to get elected. And I am not speaking just as a father here, though I am a pretty angry father, but as a citizen," he said, as reported in The Washington Post.

Voters seem to agree with the Cheneys. Nearly two-thirds of voters thought the comment was inappropriate, according to a Washington Post survey. And according to a Silver Chips Online poll, 40 percent of respondents felt the comment was appropriate, and 43 percent believed it was not.

While Kerry's comment was likely unnecessary, it was not the vulgar atrocity that the Cheneys are trying to make it seem like. Mary Cheney has been out of the closet for years, has been a member of a Republican gay-straight alliance and has worked for the Coors beer company, helping it to debunk the anti-gay label it had for a long time. Additionally, as one of her father's top advisors, she is already in the public eye.

When Kerry mentioned Mary's sexuality, he was certainly not revealing any secret. Kerry was simply explaining his position on the issue that homosexuality is not a choice. He chose to make reference to a well-known homosexual political figure. Whether this was a political move or not and whether it was an underhanded way of trying to alienate ultra-conservative Bush-Cheney supporters, let these facts not overshadow what is of real importance, the position presented.

Mary Cheney is a grown woman. This is not a real situation where the parents of some teenager feel indignant when their sexually-confused daughter is brought into the limelight. Mary Cheney is in her mid-thirties, lives with her life partner and is already well known to the public. Her parent's actions seem more likely to be politically motivated, an effort to soothe conservatives who do not want a Vice President with a lesbian daughter.

What is far worse and more damaging to Mary Cheney and gay rights in general was Lynne Cheney's refusal to acknowledge her daughter's sexual orientation during the presidential election four years ago. A mother refusing to admit her daughter is a lesbian is far more indicative of a problem with American politics than a candidate mentioning that daughter and her sexual preferences while explaining his own position.

One insignificant comment made by Kerry should not overshadow the 2004 presidential election. With scarcely more than a week left until the election, let's let John Kerry's untimely, possibly ill-advised and ultimately inconsequential comment drop and pay attention to the real differences between the candidates.

Quotes compiled from The Washington Post.