Alan Keyes' Daughter Coming Out

(CBS) The 19-year-old daughter of Alan Keyes has a Valentine for the anti-gay rights conservative pundit and frequent Republican candidate.

Maya Marcel-Keyes will be making her first public appearance as a gay activist at a Valentine Day's rally in front of the Maryland State House, says Dan Furmansky, the leader of Equality Maryland, a gay rights group.

Last summer her father, a conservative pundit and frequent Republican candidate, caused a stir during the Republican convention by labeling Vice President Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter a sinner and calling homosexuality "selfish hedonism."

"It was kind of strange that he said it like a hypothetical," she told the Washington Post. "It was really kind of unpleasant."

Marcel-Keyes told the Post her parents have thrown her out of the house, stopped speaking to her and refuse to pay for college because she is gay. She said she loves her parents.

Keyes' Web site says he is against "the homosexual rights agenda, including same-sex marriage."

Marcel-Keyes grew up in Darnestown, Md., attended a conservative Catholic school for girls in McLean, Va., spent a year in the south of India advocating tribal rights, and plans to attend Brown University this fall, according to an Equality Maryland press release.

Furmansky told CBSNews.com that Marcel-Keyes would not be speaking to the media ahead of Monday's rally, and probably not afterward, either.

Bloggers have identified her Web site as http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=Xmisled0youthX. The author of the blog says it is public and she has nothing to hide.

One more comment. If it is true that the Keyes' have stopped speaking to their daughter entirely, that is far too harsh. It's one thing to forbid her from living under the same roof if she is not abiding by her parents rule, but to disown her entirely, is too harsh. Far wiser to keep the lines of communcation open, in order to continue to provide good counsel (particularly since the liberal wolves will use Maya until they they have destroyed her and her father).

Eventually, Maya is going to crash, and she is going to need her family.

Given that Keyes knew his daughter considered herself a lesbian when he made the statement about the Cheney's daughter, the undeniable implication of his statement was that he considered his own daughter's decision to be hedonistic as well. Do you really believe he would believe otherwise about his daughter's decision? Alan Keyes is not a dishonest man.

I found it easy to draw the inference. Maya Keyes likely did too. I'm sure you can manage the easy leap as well.

She said so.

LOL - when my younger daughter was 19, she and I got into it about her staying out late, etc., etc., etc. She made the statement, "I'm an adult!"

I reminded her that as long as she was living under MY roof, with me paying for that roof, along with food, utilities, etc., AND her community college tuition and books, she'd abide by my rules. If she couldn't do that, then she was welcome to find lodging elsewhere.

She told her friends that I threw her out!

That was a long time ago, and she's now a wife and mom who's sometimes being driven nuts by her almost-teenage son. The Circle of Life ;-)

If Jesus were walking the earth among us today, the same sorts of legalistic "works" mentalities would be condemning him for hanging around with those "other people" that they considered to be the eeeeevil "sinners".

Oh, I wish I could give you a big bunch of fireworks right here!

Absolutely THE best summation of what is going on on this thread; bar none!

I just know these very same people would be talking about Jesus hanging around with 12 guys and wearing "dresses," not to mention all that "charity" work he did to help the poor and needy!

You made my day.

The Cheney's seem to have changed their views on homosexuality, because their daughter is a homosexual. That is NOT getting it RIGHT!

I'm not aware of Dick Cheney ever expressing anti-homosexuality views, whether before or after discovering his daughter's sexual orientation.

Why is this such a big news story?

Keyes is a prominent target because he speaks straight, boldly, and without apology, or compromise in a world of where moral relativism is worshipped. Such men (and women) always have armies of detractors who despise them, who wait for the moment to attack. And when they think the moment has arrived, they attack like sharks in a feeding frenzy.

I agree with his opinion. Don't you?

I am not going to get into what I agree with or not regarding homosexuality because, quite frankly, from your posts, you're not somebody whose opinion I'd be interested in hearing.

That being said, as for this:

He was asked (baited into it, really, by a gay activist with an agenda) a question about Cheney qua lesbian. He stated his honest opinion that lesbianism is hedonistic.

Do you not understand that at that very moment he was asked that question whether it was baiting or not (leaving aside how stupid he was to take the bait), he KNEW that his OWN daughter was a lesbian and that rather than do the right thing -- keep his mouth shut and cast no stones -- he took the opportunity to make POLITICAL POINTS on Mary Cheney's back, while not bothering to expose his own vulnerability at the same time?

That one second in time proved what Alan Keyes is about; and he is a hyporcrite.

"She can't love her parents that much or she would have stayed in the closet."

She's gay, it happens. She loves her parents, which says a lot for her considering how they treat her. She's not a shame nor an embarassment. If she finds a good woman to "bond with" monogomously, or whatever, then more power to her. There are plenty of things far worse than being gay. You can be a straight alcoholic. Or a straight wife-beater. Or a straight rapist. The prisons are full of perfectly straight ACTUAL embarassments to parents everywhere.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.