Truly meta
September 27, 2004 9:48 AM   Subscribe

Truly meta. We've had posts about outing gay politicians. We had a post about Dick Cheney's gay daughter. We had a Metatalk post about revealing blogs that the author might want to keep private.

Now they're all tied togther in the story of a politician's possibly gay daughter being outed by a blog that she might or might not have been keeping private. My head hurts.
posted by Armitage Shanks (26 comments total)
 
Life immitates life.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 10:10 AM on September 27, 2004


Alan Keyes is in no danger of winning the election, so all this outing is pure sport and serves no purpose. Disgusting.
posted by PrinceValium at 10:11 AM on September 27, 2004


The stuff has been taken down already, i think...Wonkette was funny about it this morning
posted by amberglow at 10:18 AM on September 27, 2004


My God, not only is she gay, but she is black as well. Does her father have no shame??
posted by sebas at 10:28 AM on September 27, 2004


Interesting. Note that the picture on Wonkette does indeed match the picture here, confirmed as Maya:

http://www.illinoisleader.com/photo/photoview.asp?p=398

This is a fascinating event to witness unfolding. Why Maya doesn't appear to have made any REAL effort to hide the fact that she is "out", it is near impossible to find anything public that states she is a lesbian - either on the Web or in the news.

If Maya is gay then I'd like to hear Keyes' views on his daughter's sexual preference since he is so incredibly anti-gay and makes incredibly homophobic statements any time gay rights issues come up in his campaign.

Moreover, I'd like to hear how this plays in the increasingly conservative and "moral majority" Republican party who went so far out of their way to get Keyes from Md to replace Ryan in IL against Obama.
posted by bkdelong at 10:32 AM on September 27, 2004


but the wording of your last link is simply incorrect in numerous ways

That may well be; I haven't read any reliable confirmation about her being out, whether the blog was intended to be protected, or even whether it was really her blog. My choice of words was a (Probably Pointlessly Passive) way of implying that I found it interesting because it brings together a bunch of recent MeFi topics, not that "hey, X's Y is Z."
posted by Armitage Shanks at 10:33 AM on September 27, 2004


PrinceValium trying to twist the simple fact that Alan Keyes is a hypocrite into some kind of example of how bad his opponents are.

I did? Where?

I simply don't think that family members of political candidates, who choose not to participate in the campaign, are fair game for public scrutiny. I was repulsed when people sent letters to Mary Cheney demanding that she speak out against the homophobia in the Bush administration. That's her business, not yours. The letter to the editor I wrote four years ago (Got into the NYTimes on the first try!) was to the same extent concerning John McCain and what he would do if his teenage daughter got pregnant.

Common decency and privacy, I think, demands that you use different hypotheticals. Same thing with Alan Keyes. His campaign was already dead, and the personal attacks don't accomplish anything. It's just mean spirited.

I'm also a Keyes opponent, btw. I love teh Obama.
posted by PrinceValium at 10:52 AM on September 27, 2004


PrinceValium: I simply don't think that family members of political candidates, who choose not to participate in the campaign, are fair game for public scrutiny.

Agree.

I was repulsed when people sent letters to Mary Cheney demanding that she speak out against the homophobia in the Bush administration.

Mary Cheney did and does "participate in the campaign." Fair game.
posted by callmejay at 11:14 AM on September 27, 2004


I don't think that you can out someone who writes that she's "totally out" on her gay.com personals profile.

It occurs to me that Keyes could twist this episode into "the evil liberal media is shamelessly attacking my daughter with a vicious slur in their continuing attempts to distract from the issues and hijack my political career."
posted by goethean at 11:33 AM on September 27, 2004


This doesn't make Alan Keyes a hypocrite at all. He may well hate his daughter, as all god-fearing Americans do.
posted by xmutex at 11:37 AM on September 27, 2004


I simply don't think that family members of political candidates, who choose not to participate in the campaign, are fair game for public scrutiny.

Maya Keyes has been on the campaign trail with her father, and regularly participates in the KeyesforSenate2004 Yahoo!Group, as noted on Chillinois. What level of participation do you want? Campaign Manager?
posted by me3dia at 11:39 AM on September 27, 2004


What exactly is "public scrutiny" in an instance like this? Is is unreasonable to point out that the daughter of man vociferously opposed to homosexuals is a lesbian who works for his campaign and writes about it? Should we avert our eyes here? Is googling up information like this unreasonable public scrutiny or is it more like reading the newspaper?
posted by octobersurprise at 11:42 AM on September 27, 2004


So I followed that Keyes for Senate Yahoo group link and discovered that another of the active posters is a guy I went to camp with way back in 1988. He was rather mild-mannered then...actually he was one of the nicest guys there. He's a pretty outspoken rabid right-winger now. I would never have guessed!
posted by SisterHavana at 11:56 AM on September 27, 2004


Yay! Keyes' daughter is a big ol' lesbo! Splash it all over the Internet!

('Cause, ya know, Illinois is not enough of a national laughingstock because the GOP here nominated him and he's obliged them by being a constant source of ludicrous behavior and sensational quotes ever since...)
posted by JollyWanker at 12:20 PM on September 27, 2004


Maybe she's going to hell and proud of it? Or something. It boggles the mind.
posted by PrinceValium at 12:29 PM on September 27, 2004


Maybe I'm not getting this, but doesn't being "outed" imply that you haven't, say, already placed your "secret" where a network of millions of computers -- Google's, yours, and mine included -- can read every little detail about it? That's already about as "out" as you can get.

I don't want to rehash the Metatalk thread about people who don't understand what a public network is, but it certainly seems odd that someone who has already openly admitted to something (in this instance, homosexuality) can be subjected to some underhanded and politically motivated "outing."

But, hey, I grew up in San Francisco, so the whole closet thing never made any damn sense to me in the first place.
posted by majick at 1:57 PM on September 27, 2004


Apparently, judging by Keyes and Cheney, having a very conservative dad gives you "the gay." So obviously it's the conservatives the religious right should keep their eyes on.
posted by drezdn at 2:00 PM on September 27, 2004


'...having a very conservative dad gives you "the gay." '

*eagerly awaits the discovery of "action" photos of the Bush twins*
posted by mr_crash_davis at 5:05 PM on September 27, 2004


I think the argument that this means nothing and should be ignored would hold more water if Keyes hadn't chided Cheney for having a "selfishly hedonistic sinner" for a daughter.
posted by CunningLinguist at 6:12 PM on September 27, 2004


Maya might be gay, but doesn't Alan like to Santorum? Ohmigoodness!
posted by DenOfSizer at 6:12 PM on September 27, 2004


Keyes has said more than just that:

“Hitler and his supporters were Satanists and homosexuals. That’s just a true statement.” He added that, “The notion that is involved in homosexuality, the unbridled sort of satisfaction of human passions” leads to “‘totalitarianism,’ ‘Nazism,’ and ‘communism.’”

“It’s about time we all faced up to the truth. If we accept the radical homosexual agenda, be it in the military or in marriage or in other areas of our lives, we are utterly destroying the concept of family. We must oppose it in the military. We must oppose it in marriage. We must oppose it if the fundamental institution of our civilization is to survive. Those unwilling to face that fact and playing games with this issue are doing so irresponsibly at the price of America’s moral foundations.”

posted by amberglow at 6:23 PM on September 27, 2004


... and give up on the gay issue.
I think some of them feel like it's their last stand. They lost the abortion fight, the fight against sex on tv and porn in general, the fight against women working, the fight against .....
posted by amberglow at 7:24 PM on September 27, 2004


They lost the abortion fight

Really? Because Bush is one justice away from winning that battle; meanwhile, women are shunned, ostracized, and forced to keep silent because of this "embarassment". Like being raped.

the fight against women working

They fought to keep women at home? And lost? Because as far as I see it, now women are working, taking care of their kids as single parents, being paid less than men, and are still expected to remain virgins until they're married. And this wasn't a Republican agenda BTW; it was an archaic Judeo-Christian agenda which is still ridiculously popular.
posted by BlueTrain at 7:46 PM on September 27, 2004


I love that pic of Maya getting hugged at her girlfriend's Gay.com page. Three cheers to Modern Vertebrate speaks! for such a great find. Also very relevant are the pages at PBS devoted to Arthur Dong's "Family Fundamentals," a documentary about gay kids of fundamentalist Christian parents.
posted by mediareport at 9:39 PM on September 27, 2004


He added that, “The notion that is involved in homosexuality, the unbridled sort of satisfaction of human passions”

Is is just me or do these rabid religious homophobes all seem to think that gay sex is the greatest thing ever?
posted by Space Coyote at 5:43 AM on September 28, 2004


There's already a joke about this going around:

Q: Why are Mary Cheney and Maya Keyes lesbians?
A: Because their dads are such lousy lovers.

: >
posted by amberglow at 9:24 PM on September 29, 2004


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