When Rachel said she was, "caught off guard" by Libertarian Stephen Gordon's remark about Alan Keyes turning his back on his daughter, I had no idea what they were talking about. I found a few articles from 2005, when the shit hit the Keyes' fan. From a February 13, 2005 Washington Post blog article by Marc Fisher: "When Sexuality Undercuts A Family's Ties:"During his failed campaign last fall against Barack Obama (D) for the Illinois Senate seat, Alan Keyes lashed out at Mary Cheney, the lesbian daughter of Vice President Cheney. Keyes told a radio interviewer that Mary Cheney was a "selfish hedonist." Then, without having been asked anything about his own family, he volunteered that "if my daughter were a lesbian, I'd look at her and say, 'That is a relationship that is based on selfish hedonism.' I would also tell my daughter that it's a sin and she needs to pray to the Lord God to help her deal with that sin."
Maya heard the comments and recoiled. "It was kind of strange that he said it like a hypothetical," she says. "It was really kind of unpleasant."
Maya returned from the demonstration to find that she had been let go from her job at her father's political organization. She says she was told to leave her father's apartment and not to expect any money toward attending Brown University, where she was admitted but deferred matriculation to spend a year teaching in southern India. "In my father's view, financing my college would be financing my politics, in a sense," Maya says, "because I plan to be an activist after college."
Strong, smart young woman, Ivy Leaguer, volunteering to teach in India, no wonder Mr. Keyes is so ashamed. So, if you didn't already think Alan Keyes is a lunatic, you sure...wait a minute...if you didn't, well, what are you doing here? 'Cause here be big ol' dykes.
Yeah, quite a surprise dig there, huh? Even Rachel was pleasantly surprised on that one!
ReplyDeleteHoping that this straight girl is welcome here, too...since I think Keyes is a friggin nutjob! (Does it help that I'm a fag hag from waaay back and have dyke pals, too???) :)
Seriously, this is the kind of b.s. hypocrisy that the anti-gay goons feed on. There's nothing my child could ever tell me that would endanger our relationship. Okay, maybe there's this one thing..."Mom, I don't know how to say this, but I'm a...a...registered Republican!" Yep, that's the only thing I can imagine causing a rift. But I still wouldn't disown them, for God's sake...
As always, great post, Conch, and thanks for the link to the right! Much appreciated! Will reciprocate on my site, if you don't mind!
I swear I already posted this comment, but apparently not...MP, I do have straight friends, but there is a rigorous screening process. I wondered how my daughter would ever rebel against someone as liberal as I am. I figured she'd be an R word, or go into the military. But she rebelled by doing me one better; she's studying to be a professional rabble rouser, whereas I am but a simple amateur.
ReplyDeleteAlan Keyes may well be the African American poster boy for Stockholm Syndrome. That this sad little man is seen as some sort or representative political entity speaks to how desperate neocons, right-wingers and othern luddites have become.
ReplyDeleteBeware ... no doubt the extremism and violence will get worse.
Ambassador Keyes - with whom I concur most fervently on most matters - has once again broached a subject on which we utterly fail to differ.
ReplyDeleteThe Keyes family is now company with the Gingriches, the Cheneys, and so many others who have to face disorder in their own house and try to keep balance. One thing our enemies do make use of is the power of pointing up hypocrisy.
So we cannot just argue in the public forum that gays are mentally ill, or that they are somehow defective or deficient, or that they are "hedonists."
ReplyDeleteWe have to live with that argument, maybe in our own homes, with our own sons or daughters, for the duration; which could be years, assuming these flimsy AIDS drugs somehow keep working.
When our sons and daughters come out to us, tell us they are gay, and dare to hope for our support - because it takes a lot of courage and frankly a lot of drugs to counteract whatever it is that five hundred guys have squirted into them - we have to react the same way when these things happen to us as we do in the public square, where we are telling these folks as plainly as we can that life is not based on how many fists or phalluses someone can invaginate or inaninate.
God help you little rebelious girl!!! You should be very ashamed of yourself!! You have a wonderfful Father and such great potential....you ruined it all with your selfish notions....This makes me SICK!!
ReplyDeleteWhat Socialist Liberals will never understand is simply a person true belief in Jesus Christ and the Bible. In the Bible God states that gays are an abomonation. Christians condemn the lifestyle but not the person. That is the clear commitment of Alan Keyes, even with his own daugher. Athiests and Socialists will only scoff at this because they can never understand. However, since the Socialists and Athiests have taken over the White House, what is it you people like about whats happening? How is it working so far for you?
ReplyDeleteYou people will be the end of the greatest country in the world unless all of you are removed from our government quickly. I pray that happens now.