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I hope I hear our more conservative members who are against gay's in the military slam Cheney now.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney, who has never been as comfortable fighting the culture wars as most conservatives, has endorsed the repeal of the Pentagon's failed "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" experiment.

This is rather a big deal. Cheney may not be a military man himself -- he diligently collected five deferments while avoiding the draft during the Vietnam War, famously declaring that he had "other priorities -- but he is a former Secretary of Defense who them took work as the top executive of one of the country's primary defense contractors. That makes him about as central a player in the military-industrial complex as you'll find.

So what does Cheney say about the push to scrap the rules that allowed gays and lesbians to serve in the military so long as they remained, for all intents and purposes, closeted?

Deferring to the counsel of members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who have argued for the repeal of the separate-but-not-quite-equal rules for gay, lesbian and bisexual soldiers, Cheney said on ABC News' "This Week": "When the Chiefs come forward and say, ‘We think we can do it,' then that strikes me that it's time to reconsider the policy."




Dick Cheney: Gay Rights Champion

I wonder if Cheney is influenced by the fact that his daughter is also gay.

Ahso!;1290470 wrote: I wonder if Cheney is influenced by the fact that his daughter is also gay.


I wonder what you would do if you had a gay daughter? Me? Well, I posted a lot of negative things about gays. My feelings were based on the gays I had to deal with in the work place. Most of those were probably the dregs of the homosexual community. I had to deal with some pretty crummy straights too, for that matter.

I'll probably regret posting this but recently I found that a close family member is gay. It was a shock to say the least. He always seemed to be a quiet, well behaved young man. He'll always be welcome in my house. I'll never love him any less.

If his mom is reading this, I pray she will forgive the nasty crap I said about gays in the past, as well as him.

hoppy;1290489 wrote: I wonder what you would do if you had a gay daughter? Me? Well, I posted a lot of negative things about gays. My feelings were based on the gays I had to deal with in the work place. Most of those were probably the dregs of the homosexual community. I had to deal with some pretty crummy straights too, for that matter.

I'll probably regret posting this but recently I found that a close family member is gay. It was a shock to say the least. He always seemed to be a quiet, well behaved young man. He'll always be welcome in my house. I'll never love him any less.

If his mom is reading this, I pray she will forgive the nasty crap I said about gays in the past, as well as him.Kudos to you, Hoppy. I'm sure his mom understands, if not, I'll be happy to talk to her too. (kidding)

There is a young lady who lived with us for a while because she is of Vietnamese descent and her parents had to go south for work. Being a good friend of our daughters we permitted her to stay with us and finish high school (2years). Her name is Mai and she is gay. I have four daughters, all beautiful looking and there was never any incident whatsoever while Mai lived here. She is our closest confidant having earned all the love and respect from us. She is now 25 years old and living in Philadelphia and when she visits the area she stays with us. She is welcome here anytime. She sometimes stays at the house alone or with her partner when the wife and I go away. Mai is like our own daughter.

Respect to you Hoppy for saying so. Takes a man to stand up and admit his shortcomings :-6