Aug 27, 2004   | COMMENTS     

After the Wednesday night session of the Republican National Convention, the Blade caught up with Illinois Senate candidate Alan Keyes on his way out of the building. Keyes kicked up quite a bit of dust on Monday when, during an interview on Sirius Out Q satellite radio, he said that the vice president's lesbian daughter, Mary Cheney, qualifies as a "selfish hedonist."

"If we embrace homosexuality as a proper basis for marriage, we are saying that it's possible to have a marriage state that in principle excludes procreation and is based simply on the premise of selfish hedonism," Keyes said then.

The interviewer responded, "I don't think Dick Cheney would like to hear that about his daughter."

Replied Keyes: "Dick Cheney may or may not like to hear the truth, but it can be spoken."

Since the comments reached wider release, the Bush/Cheney campaign and the head of the Illinois Republican Party, among others, have called Keyes' remarks "inappropriate." When CNN anchor Bill Hemmer asked Lynne Cheney, the vice president's wife, and Liz Cheney, Mary's sister, for reaction, the latter visibly bristled in response.

"I'm surprised, frankly, that you would even repeat the quote, and I'm not going to dignify it with a comment," Liz Cheney said.

The Log Cabin Republicans quickly fired off a press release blasting Keyes' comments, but the pithiest response came from Rick Garcia, who heads up Equality Illinois, a statewide gay rights group.

"Selfish hedonism? Has anyone seen Dr. Keyes look at a microphone or a television camera? That's hedonism," quipped Garcia.

Former Illinois governor, Jim Thompson, a fellow Republican, was more blunt in condemning the remarks.

"I think those views are not only extreme but offensive," said Thompson. "I think the people of Illinois will find those remarks offensive, and I think it's an offense to the political process that we have to suffer a candidate on our ticket who says things like that."

But on Wednesday night, Keyes stubbornly defended his comments, and blamed the media for the subsequent firestorm.

"What happened is that I gave an exposition, which is quite accurate, as to the justification for the Republican [platform] plank that opposes gay marriage," Keyes told the Blade, "because gay sexual relations are about the self-gratification of the parties involved who are using the organs intended for procreation for pleasure. That is to say, selfish hedonism. That's a description, not a pejorative.

"And that kind of a foundation, that kind of understanding of sexual relations is incompatible with marriage which, in heterosexual relations is pointed toward childbearing, child-rearing and family. And that involves not just pleasure and self-gratification, but sacrifice, pain--a life-long commitment...

"Then...the journalists — so called — who were asking me the questions, they mentioned Mary Cheney, and they asked if that would apply to her," Keyes continued. "Of course, since I was giving a definition of homosexual relations, then homosexual relations would apply to her. I don't think we can exempt our own people — children, friends — from the logic that supports the party's platform. And to do so would be claiming special privileges for ourselves that are not justified. So it's really very simple. And it was not a pejorative; it was simply a description. But, of course, the way the media operates today — you know what happens."

We certainly do.

Posted by Adele M. Stan, freelance columnist for the Washington Blade, Sep. 2 at 12:55 p.m.

Not so fast in Louisiana
The Louisiana Supreme Court is sending out decidedly mixed signals on a pending gay marriage case. There are three appeals asking the court to stop a ballot measure that would add a state constitutional ban to gay marriage. Late Wednesday, reports said the court had decided not to hear the appeals, which would mean the measure would go before voters. However, this morning the clerk of the court said those reports were wrong and the court still hasn't decided if it will hear the case or not.

Stay tuned. Also late Wednesday, the North Dakota Secretary of State's office certified supports of a ballot initiative to place a ban on gay marriage in that state's constitution ...