Mary Cheney: I support gay marriage because I am a Republican
Mary Cheney, the lesbian daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, has claimed that gay equality is a Republican ideal.
The equality advocate – who was at the centre of a public family feud last year after her sister Liz Cheney came out against same-sex marriage – made the comments in a speech to the Log Cabin Republicans.
She said: “I want to be very clear here. I am not a Republican with reservations, comfortable with some core convictions but not with others. I am not a conflicted conservative, struggling to reconcile personal views with settled principles.
“Sometimes you hear people speak as if freedom and equality for gay Americans requires some sort of radical departure from the ideals of the party of Lincoln.
“And this never fails to amaze me — because I always thought freedom and equality were the ideals of the party of Lincoln.
“The Log Cabin Republicans stand for values close to my heart and critical to our country’s future. I believe in the cause you serve, the cause of freedom and equality. And I’m proud to stand with you.
“That cause is worth all that we put into it, because today’s Log Cabin Republicans are helping to prepare the way for tomorrow’s Republican majority.”
She added: “I firmly believe that that is the true conservative position.
“As Prime Minister Cameron said when he spoke in support of marriage equality in Great Britain, ‘I don’t support gay marriage despite being a conservative. I support gay marriage because I am a conservative’.”
Last November, Liz Cheney, a candidate for the US Senate seat of Wyoming, said she believed in the “traditional” definition of marriage.
Mary Cheney publicly condemned her her sister, releasing a statement that said she was “on the wrong side of history”.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney – who in 2011 said he “doesn’t have any problem with” same-sex marriage – waded in to say he was “pained” to see the family feud become public.
