NATIONAL NEWS
Alan Keyes lesbian daughter comes out at rally
Liberal queer evicted from home by conservative Christian parents
By JOE CREA
Friday, February 25, 2005
A selfish hedonist. Thats what Alan Keyes, the former Illinois Senate candidate and outspoken conservative commentator, called Mary Cheney the lesbian daughter of the vice president during a radio interview last August.
Keyes later added he would have said the same thing to his own daughter if she were a lesbian.
If my daughter were a lesbian, Id look at her and say, That is a relationship that is based on selfish hedonism. I would also tell my daughter that its a sin, and she needs to pray to the Lord God to help her deal with that sin.
And according to Maya Marcel-Keyes, his 19-year-old lesbian daughter, her father kept his word.
Selfish hedonist wasnt a surprise because thats what I have heard before growing up, Marcel-Keyes said in an interview with the Washington Blade last week. I was surprised he made it so public because my dad has a lot of integrity.
The Blade is a newspaper affiliated with Southern Voice.
Alan Keyes, who ran twice for the presidency, has been an ardent opponent of gay rights and has declared that if the radical homosexual agenda is accepted we are utterly destroying the concept of family.
During Keyes failed U.S. Senate bid, bloggers and online chat rooms were abuzz over rumors that the former ambassadors daughter was a lesbian.
Those rumors were confirmed when the gay group Equality Maryland announced several weeks ago that Marcel-Keyes would be one of its featured speakers at a gay rights rally in Annapolis for the groups annual lobby day.
Within the past few weeks, Marcel-Keyes parents stopped communicating with their daughter, threw her out of the house and are now refusing to pay her college tuition, she said.
My daughter is an adult, and she is responsible for her own actions. What she chooses to do has nothing to do with my work or political activities, Keyes said in a statement issued through a spokesperson.
Marcel-Keyes speech at the Feb. 14 rally had less to do with going public about her sexual orientation and more to do with highlighting the problems of queer kids who have no place to go, she said. She dedicated the bulk of her rally remarks to a gay male friend named Shymmer, who she said recently died.
Marcel-Keyes said she had much in common with Shymmer; both were raised in conservative households and were kicked out by their parents. In contrast to the overwhelming support Marcel-Keyes said she has received since coming out, her friend was living on the streets.
[He was] going home with any man whod give him a roof over his head for the night, she said.
Marcel-Keyes described the contrast between the support she has found and the desperate situation of her friend as stark and unfortunate.
The first time something goes wrong in my life I get hundreds of people offering support, prayers, donations, people offering me spare bedrooms to crash in and telling me how they were going to make sure that I got through school alright, Marcel-Keyes said in her speech.
Marcel-Keyes calls herself a liberal queer and admits the term is very much in your face. She puts a positive spin on the term, noting that it represents a chance for gay men and lesbians to reclaim the word queer.
Like her father, she is strongly pro-life. She was raised Catholic and attended the conservative Catholic school, Oakcrest Preparatory in McLean, Va.
She said her parents suspected her of being a lesbian shortly before she graduated high school when they discovered a copy of the Washington Blade or some other gay newspaper in her room. They told her that homosexuality was a sin and that she was doing something very wrong by choosing this lifestyle, she said.
She has two brothers, ages 22 and 15; her older brother has offered her a place to stay, she said.
Marcel-Keyes, who worked on her fathers failed U.S. Senate bid last year, said she loves her parents and understands why they will no longer pay her college tuition they consider it financing her future career in activism.
I totally understand that, Keyes said. He has no obligation to fund my education.
Marcel-Keyes said shes leaning toward pursuing a degree in political science and sees herself becoming an activist focused on raising awareness of homelessness among gay and lesbian youth.
Following the news that her parents would not pay for college, the Point Foundation announced the awarding of a grant to Marcel-Keyes to attend Brown University in Providence, R.I. this fall. The Point Foundation provides academic scholarships to gays and lesbians who face financial hardship due to their sexual orientation.
Yeah, I saw a story about her coming out yesterday on CNN, it was pretty funny. I remembered what he said about Cheney's daughter.
Does that mean all gay men are repressed homophobes?
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