On Mary Cheney

So my grandmother sends me this link (article), and something within me just snapped.

I mean, sure, it was high time she said something. We had almost given up. No, wait, we had given up. I think there was no one left who still thought we were going to find a strong, empowered voice for the LGBT community in Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter. We got our hopes up--when was the last time an out lesbian was so close to the public eye, had so much opportunity to speak?

So now she's granting her first big interview. For the first time, Mary Cheney has spoken.

She's selling her memoir.

Well, I'm so glad she's finally speaking out. When the president was using the State of the Union address to damage her life and mine, she was silent. When state after state voted to ban marriage equality, she was silent. Has she spoken out on Don't Ask--Don't Tell? Prison rape and the sexual enslavement of homosexual inmates? Workplace discrimination? Hate crimes? Murder? Has she used the advantages of her position to better the world in any way? Where was Mary Cheney's voice?

But now Mary Cheney is finally speaking out. She's telling us...how she came out in high school. How much she loves her partner. How her family always loved and supported her and she loves and supports them too. Stellar reading matter, that.

What does Mary Cheney have that I don't? She's a privileged, educated white girl who came out in high school, whose parents love and support her, who has always been safe and loved and protected and accepted, who has never felt more than a little social pressure and a few restrictions because she is a lesbian. What does she have that I don't? The spotlight. The attention from the media. The audience. The chance to speak and reach millions. The chance to change the world. And what does she do with it? She writes a memoir.

Mary Cheney, like a good Republican, is using everything she has for the noble cause of personal financial gain.

So good. I'm glad. Let her sell her memoir. Let her make a little money off the Log Cabin Republicans, the oh-so-compassionate Conservatives, and those few poor queers, whoever they are, who still think she'll have something to say. Let her talk about her daddy, "This great even-keeled guy." It's better that she do this than remain silent. But unless this marks her emergence as a vocal and prominent activist for LGBT rights, I, for one, am not impressed.