Mary Cheney, the out lesbian daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney, gave birth to a baby boy on May 23. The 8-pound, 6-ounce gemini was named Samuel David Cheney. He is the first child for Mary Cheney and Heather Poe, her partner of 16 years, and the sixth grandchild for the Vice President and his wife, Lynne.
Mary Cheney, vice president for consumer advocacy at AOL, aided her father during the 2004 re-election campaign. As the father of a lesbian daughter, Vice President Cheney has found himself uncomfortably entangled with the anti-LGBT initiatives proposed by President Bush and social conservatives, such as the attempt to amend the U.S. constitution to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
Mary Cheney and Poe live in Virginia, a state that has a constitutional amendment, approved by voters in 2006, to ban same-sex marriage. The state also does not allow gay second-parent adoptions.
The LGBT community, led by voices such as Family Pride, a D.C.-based LGBT family advocacy group, congratulated Cheney and Poe on the birth and welcomed the baby into a world that, mercifully, will soon be led by a different administration.
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