Alan Keyes' daughter out of the closet and out of the house

The Illinois Leader ^ | Feb 14, 2005 | The Leader-Chicago Bureau

[metalmanx2j]

MARYLAND - Scheduled to speak at an Equality Maryland rally for gay rights today, Maya Keyes, 19, daughter of former Illinois Republican U.S. Senate candidate Alan Keyes, is speaking publicly for the first time about her sexuality and her soured relationship with her parents. Both Advocate.com and The Washington Post ran articles over the weekend wherein Maya Keyes discussed the situation.

Read Maya Keyes' interview with Advocate.com:

Maya Keyes ends speculation about her sexuality.

On Sunday, Marc Fisher of the Washington Post reported,

Maya Keyes loves her father and mother. She put off college and moved from the family home in Darnestown to Chicago to be with her dad on a grand adventure. Even though she disagrees with him on "almost everything" political, she worked hard for his quixotic and losing campaign for the U.S. Senate.

Now Maya Keyes -- liberal, lesbian and a little lost -- finds herself out on her own. She says her parents -- conservative commentator and perennial candidate Alan Keyes and his wife, Jocelyn -- threw her out of their house, refused to pay her college tuition and stopped speaking to her.

Maya, 19, says her parents cut her off because of who she is -- "a liberal queer." Tomorrow, she will take her private dispute with her dad into the open. She is scheduled to make her debut as a political animal, speaking at a rally in Annapolis sponsored by Equality Maryland, the state's gay rights lobby.

She plans to talk about "what it was like for me growing up as a liberal queer in a very conservative household. I've known so many other people in a position like mine, where their families really don't want much to do with them. Maybe I can help by talking about it."

The issue of Maya Keyes' sexuality came up during the 2004 U.S. Senate race in Illinois when Capitol Fax publisher Rich Miller discovered a blog apparently populated by Maya that discussed her family and her sexuality and included pictures of her kissing another girl. The story remained underground during the Senate campaign thanks in large measure to the campaign's unwillingness to confirm or deny that the blog was indeed Maya's.

According to Fisher's piece in the Washington Post, despite the fact that Maya has been kicked out of her home, a San Francisco-based charity, the Point Foundation, has stepped in to provide the money needed for Maya to begin her studies at Brown University.

Interestingly, Maya Keyes seems to harbor little ill will towards her father. Again, from the Washington Post,

Maya still sounds more sad than angry about her situation. "I wouldn't want to do anything to hurt my father," she says. Like other gay relatives of prominent conservatives, she has struggled with how public to be about her sexuality...Maya is looking for work, planning to move in with friends in Washington or a brother in Boston. She hopes to get back in touch with her mom and dad..."It all seems kind of ridiculous," she says, "because I love him. He's my father."

© 2005 IllinoisLeader.com

[OldFriend]

I didn't say she should pay her own way thru Brown, I said she should pay her own way thru college.

She has stated that she disagrees with her father on everything, yet she expected to be supported by him.......how very childish.

[Melas]

I guess the joke is on me... After the GI bill, working 2 jobs, and 10 grand in student loans to pay for college, I now know that all I had to be was liberal and gay.

It would be a liberal utopia if we pretended all things are equal but they're not. One of the toucher subjects is education. It might not be fair, but a sheepskin from an Ivy League school will open a whole lot more doors than a degree from State U. $10K in student loans would cover the lunch tab for an undergrad degree at Brown.

[Modernman]

She has stated that she disagrees with her father on everything, yet she expected to be supported by him.......how very childish.

I don't have kids, but when I do I'll pay their way through college whatever their political views.

[aimhigh]

As my political hero said, "the state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation."

Then it has no business paying for the consequences with my tax dollars.

[MWS]

My first thought exactly.

The article seems much too one-sided to be the "whole" truth. That is why it's sometimes best to withhold a reaction until both sides have spoken.

[Old anti feminist]

B.S.

[Varda]

Homosexual behavior is sexually abnormal and destructive. Lesbianism may be less destructive individually (compared to MSM) but it's certainly destructive at the societal level especially in the cases of persons who actively promote the behavior. Families aren't a societal luxury, they are the bedrock of humanity.

[clearsight]

Seems the fed govt is very interested in getting the country movin in that very direction

[cookcounty]

" I can think of nothing that would make me disown my child."

Was she in fact "disowned?" I can think of lots of things that would cause me to kick my 19-year old out of the house. That doesn't equate with "disowned."

P.S., I'm a dad of 4 adult kids. I'm not speaking from inexperience.

[Old anti feminist]

Thats not the same!

[bigeasy_70118]

I find the comments on this thread to be as shameful and embarrassing as Mr. Keyes' treatment of his daughter. Alan Keyes is under no obligation to pay for college or any living expenses once the child reaches the age of majority, However, if he is withholding support he would normally give on the basis of his daughter's sexuality then he is a small and petty man who deserves his political misfortunes.

I admire Mr. Keyes' rhetorical ability. However, I wonder if our party didn't use him much the same way the left is now using Maya Keyes. Hopefully, with the emergence of Ken Blackwell and Michael Steele as prominent black Republicans, Keyes and his bombastic style will go the way of Pat Buchanan, another pathetic footnote in history.

And for those of you who intend to flame me, I under no condition support gay marriage or civil unions or whatever you want to call it, nor do I support any element of the homosexual agenda and I don't have any gay friends. Further, I doubt anyone can review my posts on this board and question my conservatism.

[papertyger]

Naturally, the ultra-homophobic (and I don't use that term lightly -- he's one of the very few with a real mental disorder on this topic) waited until after his political campaign was over to throw his daughter out and trigger the inevitable publicity over the fact that she's gay.

How repugnant. You presume to "diagnose" under the color of authority when you can't even get your facts straight.

While I have no doubt Keyes is deeply disappointed by his daughter's choices, by her own admission Maya suffered no sanctions while she kept her opinions and proclivities to herself. It was only when she attended, again by her own admission, a "Counter-Inaugural" that she was turned out.

You need to ask yourself why you would so easily traffic such a salacious lie when all you had to do was count the days between the election and the inauguration to know how unsupportable your insinuation is.

[brewcrew]

It's not an addiction nor is it an illness, it's just the way that some people are...

Correction: it's just the way that some people choose to be.

[Idisarthur]

I understand where you are going with this however the relationship is somewhat temporal. However I have a goal to "shine some light" in this world and work toward things that are everlasting.

So correct, I might regret it but what can I (or we) do about it. We are in a world that is in a fallen state.

My brother is a non-christian and a fan of Che Guevara
.
So I'm in a tough situation. BTW, his personality doesn't help the situation at all.

Equally, Allan Keyes did what all people of faith do - have kids and pray that they are believers. He might regret his hurt relationship with his daughter however she has free will and he has to let go.

Just because they are family doesn't mean they are meant to be bound together for life. When God views the saved he sees light when he views the unsaved the view is hazy.

I'm the type that loves a person who believes in something as opposed to those who follishly spout off saying that truth doesn't exist. Keyes and myself might be wrong but I'm under the impression that I'm about 40-50% correct concerning faith. (The arrogant one is probably laughing at that statement.)

If only man wasn't so prideful - he would bend a knee.

[Modernman]

Homosexual behavior is sexually abnormal and destructive.

It's not terribly abnormal. It's certainly considered less abnormal than other sexual behaviors, such as S&M. It might not be what the majority of people like to do, but that's just a question of preference. As for it being destructive, any sex act among consenting adults is not destructive, in of itself. How would you describe destructive?

Lesbianism may be less destructive individually (compared to MSM) but it's certainly destructive at the societal level especially in the cases of persons who actively promote the behavior.

How does a lesbian sex act harm the rest of society?

Families aren't a societal luxury, they are the bedrock of humanity.

Homosexuals make about 3% of the population. How does the existence of such a small % of people practicing a certain type of sexual behavior harm families?

[OldFriend]

LOL....keep this little ditty in mind......

With the patter of little feet, come a thousand words I'll have to eat.

[Modernman]

Teenagers tend to adopt a whole bunch of dumb views. If every conservative parent refused to pay for a college education for their liberal children, there would be a lot less kids in universities.

[beezdotcom]

Homosexuals make about 3% of the population.

Tsk, tsk. The gay activists would certainly disagree with your numbers - why, how is a puny 3% supposed to advance an agenda over the other 97%? No, you must inflate those numbers to the double digits.

[sandbar]

>Was she in fact "disowned?" I can think of lots of things >that would cause me to kick my 19-year old out of the >house. That doesn't equate with "disowned."

Kicking them out of the house, refusing to continue with her education and not talking to her. Sounds like 'disowned' to me. Not to mention, that was quoted in another article. I am not saying I wouldn't kick my kids out of the house if I felt the need, but I would never stop talking to them. With the exception of extreme violent threats. Who they choose to sleep with would NOT be a valid reason to me.

[Guenevere]

#55..Well said.