Zev Chafets:
The third Bush-Kerry debate may not change the outcome of the presidential election in November. But it may well be remembered as a milestone in the struggle for gay equality and acceptance. Give the credit for that to John Kerry.Toward the end of the debate, moderator Bob Schieffer asked both candidates if they believed homosexuality was a choice. President Bush said he didn't know. Kerry said that it is inborn, and cited an authority on the subject. "I think if you talk to Dick Cheney's daughter, who is a lesbian, she'll say she is being who she was, she's being who she was born as," he said.
Why Cheney's daughter? Kerry knows lots of famous people who believe - as he says Mary Cheney believes - that they were born gay. He could have cited Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank or New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey. Both are public men who could offer personal testimony about the inborn nature of homosexuality.
But that wasn't the point Kerry wanted to make. He was crying Mary to send a message to presumably homophobic Christian voters: Just in case you hadn't heard, the vice president harbors a practicing lesbian in the bosom of his family.
...
Politically, Kerry won't benefit from playing the Mary card. But that doesn't mean he hasn't accomplished something of value. Many conservative Christians are for the first time publicly embracing an avowed homosexual. This puts them in touch with their real priorities and values - including that cardinal Kerry virtue, nuance.
Mary Cheney may be gay, but it turns out there are worse things. At least she isn't a Democrat.
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