Gay-pocrisy

As you may have read, Mary Cheney is pregnant. Yes, the Vice President's daughter and her longtime girlfriend have arranged for her to have a baby. The Vice President and his wife are, of course, very happy that they will soon be grandparents. While I would love to share in their joy, I am instead filled with anger at the hypocrisy of this happy family which rules a party that has dedicated great political energy to outright demonizing this type of family and has worked to make already tough lives even tougher for gay people all across America. They don't deserve this happiness.

The only upside to this news would be if seeing one of their leaders celebrating the birth of a child created from artificial semination into a same-sex relationship forced the far-right to rethink their radical stances. Don't hold your breath-

...Janice Crouse of Concerned Women for America described the pregnancy as "unconscionable."

"It's very disappointing that a celebrity couple like this would deliberately bring into the world a child that will never have a father," said Crouse, a senior fellow at the group's think tank. "They are encouraging people who don't have the advantages they have."

Crouse said there was no doubt that the news would, in conservatives' eyes, be damaging to the Bush administration, which already has been chided by some leaders on the right for what they felt was halfhearted commitment to anti-abortion and anti-gay-rights causes in this year's general election...

Of course, it might be nice to see the Vice President defend his daughter against these attacks and stand up to his party's base and tell them to wake up and smell the 21st century, but he will not. His party needs these radical elements to win elections, even though most party leaders don't privately share their beliefs. Cheney is happy to sell families like his own down the river if it means getting some extra votes. None of this will change until at least 2009.

I like this point of view better-

Family Pride, which advocates on behalf of gay and lesbian families, noted that Virginia last month became one of 27 states with a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage...

...The couple "will quickly face the reality that no matter how loved their child will be. ... he or she will never have the same protections that other children born to heterosexual couples enjoy," Chrisler said. "Grandfather Cheney will no doubt face a lifetime of sleepless nights as he reflects on the irreparable harm he and his administration have done to the millions of American gay and lesbian parents and their children."...

In semi-related hypocrisy news, this week begins the 'rehabilitation' of disgraced reverend Ted Haggard. He will be "expected to use prayer and Bible study to help [himself] resist the temptation to sin". It may take weeks to pray away the amount of gay in the reverend.

Finally, more encouraging news from the NY Times: "The highest legal body in Conservative Judaism, the centrist movement in worldwide Jewry, voted yesterday to allow the ordination of gay rabbis and the celebration of same-sex commitment ceremonies." The article adds that "the committee left it up to individual synagogues to decide whether to accept or reject gay rabbis and commitment ceremonies, saying that either course is justified according to Jewish law."

Okay, the Jews are down. Christians, it's your move (I won't hold my breath on Muslims).