Petrelis Files

Mary Cheney Donated 
$2,500 to Romney For President

(Screengrab from OpenSecrets.org. Click to enlarge.)

My gut feeling about whether out lesbian Mary Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, would contribute to Mitt Romney's presidential campaign was that she would do so close to November election. I was off by several months.

On January 7, she donated $2,500 to Romney according to Federal Election Commission files at OpenSecrets.org, the Political MoneyLine and the FEC.gov sites.

When news broke in June that Cheney had married her longtime partner Heather Poe in Washington, DC, I searched FEC files at those three sites for any donations to Romney and nothing turned up. If something had, I would have blogged about the donation and I wish I knew why a donation from six months ago is only now showing up in searches.

Cheney clearly wasn't thinking of Romney's various anti-gay positions and promises when she made the donation. Her gay and lesbian agenda doesn't rule out voting for and contributing to Republicans who don't give a damn about our community.

After Cheney's lesbianism was mentioned in a positive way by Sen. John Edwards during his 2004 debate with Veep Cheney, Lynne Cheney was incensed and made this comment:

"[It was] a cheap and tawdry political trick. . . . The only thing I can conclude is he's not a good man. I'm speaking as a mom."

(Two hypocrites: Mary and Dick Cheney.)

When Sen. John Kerry answered a question about homosexuality being a choice during one of his debates with President George Bush, he cited Mary Cheney being born with same-sex instincts. That didn't sit well with the Veep who said:

“You saw a man who will say and do anything in order to get elected. And I am not just speaking as a father here, though I am a pretty angry father.”

The hypocrisy of Lynne and Dick Cheney is laughable today. In the 2004 presidential race, they were full of anger and outrage that Mary's out lesbian status was cited in a favorable light by Democratic contenders. 

Speaking of a man who will flip-flop and say pretty much anything to win the White House, including denying lesbians the right to marry, Romney evokes no condemnations from any member of the Cheney family.