corrente

Catching up on reading I didn't get done yesterday I find this most cogent analysis of the "Mary Cheney problem" from a somewhat unexpected source:
(via Juan Cole)

If daughter Mary's condition were viewed at least subconsciously by Dick and Lynne as a disability, then it would be rude for strangers to bring it up. It would be all right for a politician to go before an audience and talk about his love for his blind daughter and say that although his party is against mandating disabled access to public buildings, he himself favors it because he has seen the challenges his daughter faced.

But obviously if a rival politician suddenly said, "Well, Cheney, your daughter is blind as a bat," that would be rude beyond belief. And Lynne's charge that Kerry is "not a good man" would be precisely the sort of reaction one might expect to such an indelicate reference.

But right-thinking Americans don't believe that being gay is a disability or anything shameful. It is like being left-handed or red-headed. It is just the way some people are, and probably has a complex base in genes and proteins. So if in a debate, the issue came up that some school teachers make left-handed students write with their right hands, and Kerry were to say, "Well, Dick Cheney's daughter knows how unfair this is because she is left-handed," nobody would think that was rude or inappropriate. Because Kerry wouldn't be instancing it as a stigma or a disability, but just a neutral fact of life.

So I think the sheer fury of Lynne and Dick Cheney in reaction to this harmless remark actually demonstrates that they both still have an unfaced prejudice toward gay people, and are still ashamed that this "disability" exists in their family. Kerry thought nothing of the remark because he doesn't share that prejudice, and doesn't consider being gay in any way shameful.

'Course, there's also the Blue-Haired Ladies factor to consider...scroll up from this link to see a more recent post on the Cheneying of the Cheneys. Then take a break and meditate on the subtle workings of karma.