Originally Posted by New Civil Rights Movement February 17, 2012

Former Vice President Dick Cheney has reportedly been lobbying behind the scenes for a Maryland same-sex marriage equality bill that is being debated this afternoon. Cheney, who still has pull within the GOP, has a lesbian daughter. He and his wife have spoken publicly in recent years about their daughter and her family on TV talk shows.

Originally Posted by The Washington Post circa June 2009

Former vice president Richard Cheney waded into another simmering public debate today, suggesting he supports legalizing gay marriage as long as the issue is decided by the states rather than the federal government.

Cheney, whose youngest daughter is a lesbian with a longtime partner, said during an appearance at the National Press Club that "people ought to be free to enter into any kind of union they wish, any kind of arrangement they wish."

He said he does not support federal action allowing gay marriages, however. "Historically the way marriage has been regulated is at the state level," Cheney said. "It has always been a state issue and I think that is the way it ought to be handled, on a state-by-state basis."

Originally Posted by The Same

Cheney has long departed from conservative orthodoxy on the issue of gay marriage, saying during the 2000 presidential campaign that the matter should be left to the states. He also prompted an uproar during the 2004 race when he appeared to distance himself from a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, which was strongly supported by his boss, George W. Bush.

But his endorsement of state-sanctioned marriage for gays and lesbians appears to put him to the left of President Obama, who has said he supports civil unions rather than marriage for same-sex couples.

"With the respect to the question of relationships, my general view is freedom means freedom for everyone," Cheney said at a 2004 campaign stop in Davenport, Iowa, using language nearly identical to his remarks today. "People ought to be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to."

Originally Posted by Magus (Post 1185240)

The thing with Dick Cheney is it's only because it affects his own personal life. So many people go around oppressing other people and then bam, suddenly it affects them and they're like "Oh, maybe I was totally wrong about this." Some people are like "Man, these bums should get a job and quit living off the governmetn dime", and then they lose their job. Or they're like "Hey, these drug addicts should be locked up for life!" Then their kid gets addicted to something.

If Dick Cheney's daughter wasn't gay I can't really believe he would be tolerant of gay people. I don't seem him being tolerant in other positions/beliefs/lifestyles that are out there.

Originally Posted by Aerozord (Post 1185250)

I am not a fan of this sentiment. When you get right down to it this is normal. Out of sight out of mind. I mean how many of us are accessing this forum from devices manufactured in overseas sweatshops.

The man realizes persecuting homosexuals is wrong and regardless of why he thinks that it is a positive that he does. We shouldn't act high and mighty and dismissive simply because his realization was achieved differently.

Originally Posted by Magus (Post 1185289)

I pointed out that many people's moral compasses work this way. I don't really think of it as being particularly positive because it exposes an incredibly shallow way of thinking about the world that appears to be deeply ingrained into a big swath of the human race.