Monday, October 18, 2004
My letter to Mr. Safire
Dear Mr. Safire,
In reply to your New York Times editorial, "The Lowest Blow" (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/18/opinion/18safire.html?oref=login&hp), I beg to differ with your analysis that few people outside of "political junkies" knew that Mary Cheney was a lesbian before she was "outed" by her father.
The GLBT community, including straight friends and relatives, has known for quite a while that Dick Cheney's daughter is a lesbian. That really is nothing new to a large portion of the voting public, who would not consider themselves political junkies:
Mary Cheney worked as a gay community liaison for Coors Brewing Company, where she was instrumental in ending a 20-year boycott by the gay community of that company. (It may be time to start up that campaign again!) Cheney left Coors in 2000 to work with her father and the Bush campaign. In 2002, Mary Cheney served on the advisory board of the Republican Unity Coalition, a gay-straight alliance formed within the Republican party to help increase tolerance within the party for gays and lesbians, and others. Cheney currently receives a paycheck of $2,776 every two weeks, for her role as the head of her father’s campaign team.
And before you try to take out the splinter in Kerry's eye for his comment about Mary, why don't you remove the log from Bush's eye; the fact that the Bush campaign is using blatant gay bashing (http://www.steveclemons.com/GOPMailer.htm) to shore up anti-gay voters in the south? Yet Mary Cheney, an open lesbian, is running the vice president's campaign. Does Mary know about this mailing? Did she approve it? Does the RNC really think Mary Cheney wants to ban the Bible?
Your language insinuates that Kerry has run a "gratuitous" and "sleazy" campaign. Take the log out of your OWN eye now, Mr. Safire - explain to me, and other citizens of this country, why the Republican National Committee is sending out those despicable anti-gay flyers, why the RNC hired a company to handle voter registration applications in Nevada which proceeded to destroy Democratic applications, never mind the Swift Boat false attacks on John Kerry. The list of Republican tricks goes on and on... Just like CREEP, this newest re-generation of CREEPs will find out that good guys don't always finish last.
Big deal - Cheney has a lesbian daughter. My only regret is that she is not brave enough to stand up to her father, his boss, and the right-wing Republicans and declare that she's queer, she's here, and they need to get over it! It seems the right-biased media needs to get over it, too.
Voting for Kerry is Voting for True Inclusion, and a Safer, Stronger America,
Ruth J. Mahnken, MSSW
In reply to your New York Times editorial, "The Lowest Blow" (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/18/opinion/18safire.html?oref=login&hp), I beg to differ with your analysis that few people outside of "political junkies" knew that Mary Cheney was a lesbian before she was "outed" by her father.
The GLBT community, including straight friends and relatives, has known for quite a while that Dick Cheney's daughter is a lesbian. That really is nothing new to a large portion of the voting public, who would not consider themselves political junkies:
Mary Cheney worked as a gay community liaison for Coors Brewing Company, where she was instrumental in ending a 20-year boycott by the gay community of that company. (It may be time to start up that campaign again!) Cheney left Coors in 2000 to work with her father and the Bush campaign. In 2002, Mary Cheney served on the advisory board of the Republican Unity Coalition, a gay-straight alliance formed within the Republican party to help increase tolerance within the party for gays and lesbians, and others. Cheney currently receives a paycheck of $2,776 every two weeks, for her role as the head of her father’s campaign team.
And before you try to take out the splinter in Kerry's eye for his comment about Mary, why don't you remove the log from Bush's eye; the fact that the Bush campaign is using blatant gay bashing (http://www.steveclemons.com/GOPMailer.htm) to shore up anti-gay voters in the south? Yet Mary Cheney, an open lesbian, is running the vice president's campaign. Does Mary know about this mailing? Did she approve it? Does the RNC really think Mary Cheney wants to ban the Bible?
Your language insinuates that Kerry has run a "gratuitous" and "sleazy" campaign. Take the log out of your OWN eye now, Mr. Safire - explain to me, and other citizens of this country, why the Republican National Committee is sending out those despicable anti-gay flyers, why the RNC hired a company to handle voter registration applications in Nevada which proceeded to destroy Democratic applications, never mind the Swift Boat false attacks on John Kerry. The list of Republican tricks goes on and on... Just like CREEP, this newest re-generation of CREEPs will find out that good guys don't always finish last.
Big deal - Cheney has a lesbian daughter. My only regret is that she is not brave enough to stand up to her father, his boss, and the right-wing Republicans and declare that she's queer, she's here, and they need to get over it! It seems the right-biased media needs to get over it, too.
Voting for Kerry is Voting for True Inclusion, and a Safer, Stronger America,
Ruth J. Mahnken, MSSW
