By Peter J. Smith
WASHINGTON, D.C., June 3, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – If Republican Chairman Michael Steele did not have enough problems keeping the GOP’s conservative coalition together, Dick Cheney’s Monday endorsement of same-sex marriage did little to ameliorate the situation.
The former vice president stated Monday at the National Press Club that he supported same-sex unions, whether they be called “marriage” or otherwise.
“I think that freedom means freedom for everyone,” Cheney asserted in response to a question concerning the latest court rulings and legislation legalizing same-sex “marriage.” Cheney mentioned the homosexual lifestyle of his daughter, Mary, who has a son conceived through an anonymous sperm donor. A 2007 White House photo announcement, however, obscured that fact, calling both Mary Cheney and her lesbian partner, Heather Poe, the child’s parents (see coverage).
“I think people ought to be free to enter into any kind of union they wish. Any kind of arrangement they wish,” said Cheney.
However, Cheney then qualified his position by reiterating that the federal government had no role in imposing same-sex “marriage” since “historically the way marriage has been regulated is at the state level.”
“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. … But I don't have any problem with that. People ought to get a shot at that.”
Cheney’s statements at the National Press Club were not his first public support of same-sex unions. Throughout the campaign trail in 2004, Cheney refused to endorse President Bush’s call for a Constitutional amendment limiting the definition of marriage to a man and a woman. Cheney also stated at a campaign rally in Iowa that his “general view is freedom means freedom for everyone” and added that “People ought to be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to.”
While Cheney no longer holds any sort of elected office or leadership position in the GOP, his words add to the frenzied debate over same-sex “marriage,” and to the woes of a Republican Party that is struggling to find a unified voice to oppose President Barack Obama and the Democrats in the 2010 Congressional elections.
When asked about Cheney’s statements on CNN’s American Morning, GOP Chairman Michael Steele responded, “My personal view is that marriage is between a man and a woman,” remarking that his opinion is “very much in line with what the President has said.”