Well, I listened to the Dr Helen/Instapundit podcast with Mary Cheney. I wasn’t impressed. I’m very glad I didn’t break down and order Cheney’s book when I discovered it wasn’t available at my library. I’m not anti-gay-marriage republican, I live with one of those ya know. I’m not pro-gay marriage, either, so I thought I might actually agree with something Mary Cheney had to say. Or I might even appreciate her point of view. I did agree that "there are many, many points of views regarding gay marriage". I didn’t agree with anything else she said and I felt like she was still just giving the party line – like there was no real passion behind what she said – except maybe at the end, when she talked about her mother. Maybe.
She and Dr Helen think it’s a shame democrats spend so much time talking about whether you’re gay or you aren’t gay. She and Dr Helen think it isn’t important to talk about such things or acknowledge such things. They think it just doesn’t matter if you’re gay. They would be right – except the extreme right cares. The extreme right cares so much that they don’t want to acknowlege gay people at all. It’s don’t ask/don’t tell to the extreme.
Mary Cheney talked about how great her parents were when she came out. I think that’s terrific. Unfortunately neither of her parents have been very forthcoming with that information which leads a great many conservatives to believe they should not behave the way Mary says her parents behaved. People learn from example Ms Cheney. People learn acceptance by seeing it modeled. They don’t learn it by having it swept aside, by pretending it isn’t necessary or the need doesn’t exist. Your father hugged you and told you he loved you when you came out. Good for you. Wouldn’t it be nice if he felt comfortable saying that out loud, to everyone in the world? Wouldn’t it be nice if your father, that great role model in your life, and your mother the even greater role model in your life, stepped up to the plate and became role models for an entire country? Wouldn’t it have been terrific if you’d said that 8 years ago? It would have been. But now, it just feels hollow. Maybe even untrue. Maybe just a little bit like politics.
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