Posted on 02/14/2005 9:46:45 AM PST by 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
sickening comment...and ignorant.
"and included pictures of her kissing another girl"
pictures please....
"What, she can't work for her tuition?"
At 40K a year for tuition, I'm guessing not. I wonder if the Point Foundation will pay for me to go to a University that charges 40K a year. They should 'cause I sure as hell can't afford it.
Once again we have to point out the distinction between the disordered desire of homosexuality and acting on those desires, Keyes himself did this in his much maligned "hedonist" statement during his campaign. The story doesn't say but see that Keyes understands this difference I would surmise she was thrown out for acting on her disordered desires.
If she needs luggage, she can always borrow her dad's carpetbag.
If she's lost now, wait til those parasites finish with her."
Exactly.
How about a little compassion here? Alan Keyes should show a little compassion, if Dick Cheney can do it Keyes can.
I don't know the dynamics here anymore than the rest of you and I certainly don't know what I would do if I had a child that stated they were gay. I just hope that I could find a way to have relationship and not shut the door to communication.
Alan Keyes, his wife and daughter need to find a way to try and work out a way to at least speak and find some common ground.
Particularly because Keyes is under some sort of delusion that he has a political career.
See # 26
I think Alan Keyes just became a little lonelier and will miss his daughter and might live to regret his decision, but then again he is a politician...one part ego, one part stubborn, one part sociopath and one part image.
She is 19.
I wonder how many conservative political and religious leaders have had their children targeted for homosexual seduction.
I'm not seeing much 'hate the sin, love the sinner' sentiment here.
In any case, had you read the article, you would have realized that she could not have been more upfront about her political leanings. She flatly describes herself as "a liberal queer." Why are you so hostile to her?
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.
If either of my kids did this, they would get the boot too.
Reminds me of the Time Patti Davis appeared on Donahue to tout her book and tell the world what awful parents she had. It blew up in her face when people saw her for who she was - a whiny, spoiled brat.
Ummm...no. The Cheneys pretend that their daughter's destructive behavior isn't destructive. The Keys seem to be showing strength in the face of their daughters decision. I wish them well, many parents become enablers of their children's problems rather than a steadfast example of holding to principles that lead the way to life and happiness.
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