Groups mixed on Mary Cheney's pregnancy

Dick Cheney is said to be looking forward to the birth of his sixth grandchild "with eager anticipation", even though - thanks to legislation that he has supported - the child will have less rights and protections than other children because it is not the product of a heterosexual relationship.

His daughter Mary Cheney, 37, and her partner of 15 years, Heather Poe, 45, are expecting the baby in late spring. The Vice President, who loves his daughter very much, simply does not believe that she - or her offspring - should have the same rights under law as children born to heterosexual couples. But then, this Vice President once voted to keep Nelson Mandela in jail, so he's quite used to being on the wrong side of political correctness.

His daughter's sexuality has long posed a problem for a man with the views the Vice President has and her pregnancy has enraged many of the groups that the Republicans rely on for their support.

Janice Crouse of Concerned Women for America described the pregnancy as "unconscionable."

"It's very disappointing that a celebrity couple like this would deliberately bring into the world a child that will never have a father," said Crouse, a senior fellow at the group's think tank. "They are encouraging people who don't have the advantages they have."

Crouse said there was no doubt that the news would, in conservatives' eyes, be damaging to the Bush administration, which already has been chided by some leaders on the right for what they felt was halfhearted commitment to anti-abortion and anti-gay-rights causes in this year's general election.

Carrie Gordon Earll, a policy analyst for the conservative Christian ministry Focus on the Family, expressed empathy for the Cheney family but depicted the newly announced pregnancy as unwise.

"Just because you can conceive a child outside a one-woman, one-man marriage doesn't mean it's a good idea," said. "Love can't replace a mother and a father."

I often wonder how someone like Cheney manages to maintain his prejudices whilst still, obviously, loving his own daughter. He quite clearly believes that she is entitled to less rights because of her sexuality than other parents.

Indeed, his daughter's partner will have no legal rights at all in relation to the child.

"Unless they move to a handful of less restrictive states, Heather will never be able to have a legal relationship with her child," said Family Pride executive director Jennifer Chrisler.

The couple "will quickly face the reality that no matter how loved their child will be. ... he or she will never have the same protections that other children born to heterosexual couples enjoy," Chrisler said. "Grandfather Cheney will no doubt face a lifetime of sleepless nights as he reflects on the irreparable harm he and his administration have done to the millions of American gay and lesbian parents and their children."

I think Chrisler is endowing Cheney with more humanity that he possesses when she imagines that this man will have "sleepless nights" over his position on this issue.

A man who can sleep knowing that as many as 655,000 innocent Iraqis have possibly died as a result of his policies won't so much as twitch over as small a matter as a pregnant lesbian.

There was a time when bigots like Cheney used to disown their daughters when their sexuality was revealed and we are to be pleased that such a time has passed. However, one has to wonder how seriously Cheney believes in the prejudice that he campaigns on when he is "eagerly anticipating" a birth that his party so vehemently disapproves of.

I have always thought that Republicans make laws for other people and do not consider that these same laws apply to themselves. It's why they are always so stunned when they are told that what they are engaging in is fraud for example.

In this case the political crashes against the personal. And on a personal front I do not believe that Cheney will love this grandchild any less than he loves any of his other grandchildren.

So he will one day have to ask himself, why does this child not deserve the same rights under law as my other grandchildren?

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