Posted on 02/16/2005 10:06:45 PM PST by Former Military Chick
SEATTLE
SO far 2005 hasn't been a very good year for gays and lesbians. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings slammed Buster, an animated rabbit, for visiting a Vermont girl with same-sex parents; President Bush renewed his call for an anti-gay amendment to the Constitution; and a deadly new strain of H.I.V. has surfaced.
But there was one bright spot this week. On Monday, Maya Keyes, the daughter of Alan Keyes, officially declared herself a lesbian at a gay rights rally in Annapolis, Md. It was a bit of good news for gays and lesbians, particularly those who are connoisseurs of schadenfreude. Or was it?
Alan Keyes is the Republican who moved to Illinois last year to run against Barack Obama for the United States Senate. To describe Mr. Keyes as an opponent of gay rights is putting it mildly: during his campaign Mr. Keyes described homosexuality as "selfish hedonism." When asked if he thought Mary Cheney, the lesbian daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney, was a selfish hedonist, he replied, "Of course she is."
Learning that a prominent conservative like Mr. Keyes (or Randall Terry, the anti-abortion-turned-antigay-rights crusader whose son revealed last spring he is gay) has a gay relative is nothing new. Newt Gingrich, for instance, has a lesbian half-sister. But for gays and lesbians there's something particularly satisfying about watching a prominent antigay conservative learn that his or her own child is homosexual. It smacks of cosmic retribution: Mr. Keyes now has to choose between his antigay "pro-family" rhetoric and a member of his own family.
Sadly for Maya Keyes, her father apparently has more affection for his ideology than for his daughter. She says her parents kicked her out of the house and have refused to pay for her education. (Thankfully, some of those evil gay people have come forward to pay her tuition at Brown next year through the Point Foundation.) Perhaps Mr. and Mrs. Cheney could find the time to call Mr. and Mrs. Keyes and explain how parents who actually value their families react when they learn one of their children is gay.
But I can't enjoy this news about Maya Keyes as much as most gays and lesbians. As a parent, you see, I feel Alan Keyes's pain - and Randall Terry's too. I can empathize with their desire not to see their children grow up to be one of us because I live in mortal fear of my child growing up to be one of them.
There are more gay and lesbian couples having families than you may think; according to the 2000 census, there are 250,000 children in the United States being raised by same-sex parents. The debate over gay marriage can be particularly infuriating for us. Allowing gays and lesbians to marry, people like Alan Keyes and Randall Terry argue, would somehow harm children. In Washington a group calling itself Allies for Marriage and Children, co-founded by Jeff Kemp, the son of the former presidential candidate Jack Kemp, advocates a ban on gay marriage.
I live in Seattle with my partner and son. Preventing us from marrying harms my child and does nothing to protect Jeff Kemp's. So in my darker moments I find myself hoping that one day Mr. Kemp will, like Randall Terry or Alan Keyes, find himself listening to one of his children explain that he is gay.
Yet my better angels won't let me wish a gay child on anyone for fear of setting myself up for the gay-parent brand of cosmic retribution that Mr. Keyes brought down on his own head. As the children being raised by gays and lesbians grow into adulthood, it's inevitable that some of them will disappoint their gay parents. One day some prominent gay or lesbian parent - Rosie O'Donnell? Melissa Etheridge? little ol' me? - is going to cringe in horror when Matt Drudge breaks the news that one of our children has become a born-again Christian Republican who condemns his parents for their "selfish hedonism."
If we don't want the same fate to befall us - and I don't - then it's only prudent for us not to take too much pleasure in the plight of Alan Keyes. The next time someone like Maya Keyes comes tumbling out of the closet, we should all try to be gracious and not succumb to our baser instincts. Because one day it's going to be our turn.
I mean, kids. They'll break your heart every time.
Dan Savage is editor of The Stranger, a Seattle newsweekly.
Having two daughters, I have thought through that scenario. I am not sure how I would have handled something like that.
She will of course be given a fawning interview on Queer Channel Radio (NPR).
I have three daughters. If faced with the situation, I would continue to love her, but anyone living under our roof is required to live a Christian life. Those who refuse to may live however they wish-- elsewhere. I imagine the same is true in the Keyes household, which is why they are no longer supporting her financially.
Crocodile tears from a so-called "gay parent." How disgusting. Maya should be ashamed of herself, but the savage creature who wrote this is obviously incapable of that emotion.
Let's just be clear here. Dan Savage is a gay activist. So make sure you read this article through that lens.
Oh, the horror, not paying for her education!
Keyes sticks with his principles and the author condemns him for it.
The whole gay marriage issue is a canard. If this "guy" wnats to be married to his "partner," they can have a ceremony; it just won't be recognised by the State. Property issues can be handles through wills and contracts. They do not have to have a state sanctioned marriage to acquire the benefits that straights enjoy in marriage. The issue revolves, really, around acceptance of deviant behaviour.
Unwittingly, they have admitted that H.I.V. is primarily traced to homosexual activity. If someone else had stated it they would have pounced and accused them of a hate crime for having the temerity to state so.
That might good advice to some, however, I would rather read it through my own lens. I usually get it right.
I am very sure that a large proportion of these so-called "gay" offspring are nothing of the sort.
These are otherwise innocents who have been proseletized, promoted, subverted and seduced by a relentless campaign of propaganda and pressure. I wonder if it is even a wise thing anymore to send a child to University.
These former places of refuge and learning are now swamps of leftist lies, perversion and hate.
We seem to be nearing the time that torches must be lit.
Figuratively, of course. I don't want to be seen as promoting violence. Especially aginst the slimeballs inhabiting our Universities. Like Ward Churchill, as he is of this same cloth.
Bravo I tend to agree with your comment. Hey, I suppose she could have hid her choice of companionship until she finished college. Seems she tried to take the high road with her family.
I do agree, a parent is a parent all of their life. As Christians we should love one another, we do not need to agree with one another but it may be a very lonely road for the Keyes family.
Not in their shoes but you get my drift.
Watch out, I posted a thread about this a several days ago and 800 replies later its still collecting posts.
I think I'll start passing on these articles.
Whenever I read any article from the NYTimes I pretty much assume the author is a gay activist.
Extremely classless on the part of the daughter, not only for the harm it does to her father, but also with respect to the TMI given to the rest of us.
Dan Savage is best known as the guy who posed as a Gary Bauer campaign volunteer for Salon.com. Upon discovering he had the flu, he went around the Bauer office "licking doorknobs" in hopes of infecting his hated enemy. He's a piece of work.
I've got news for you. Many of the most virulent anti-gay activists are themeselves gay, or worried that they might be. We're basically looking at a civil war.
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