Feeling the need to share this.

Marshall asks of Kerry's GAY DAUGHTER moment: "And more to the point: what's the problem exactly unless you instinctively believe that homosexuality is something to be ashamed of?"

I felt compelled to respond "As a gay man..."

I have to disagree with you about Mary Cheney. You say: "And more to the point: what's the problem exactly unless you instinctively believe that homosexuality is something to be ashamed of? "

Well, I don't believe that homosexuality is something to be ashamed of. But I also recognize that my parents are Conservative Christians. And I tend to see the negotiation of our relationship as an issue that is best kept between us.

Dick Cheney has acknowledged his daughter, rather than disowning her, and he's to be commended for that. He's taken a risk WITHOUT Kerry's or Edwards' help. It isn't easy to be a conservative Republican running on such an explicitly Christian ticket and to refuse to disown or even disacknowledge one's gay daughter during this campaign.

Dick Cheney's defense of his daughter is HURTING his re-election chances. As a gay man, I find it disgraceful that loving one's gay daughter can destroy one's political career, ESPECIALLY if one's a Republican. To see Kerry and Edwards smearing salt in that wound STINGS.

I wish they'd stop it. Fine, Cheney's base doesn't like that he has a gay daughter. But there's NO legitimate reason why Kerry should have referenced Mary Cheney. He could have staid at the same levels of general abstraction as he did with the rest of his response ("some people.") But he chose to emphasize Cheney's private family relationship. And in so doing, he sure came across to THIS gay man as trying to punish Dick Cheney for having done right by his GAY DAUGHTER.

That makes me ashamed, and, though I could never vote in a million years for George W. Bush, it makes me feel a little less good about casting my vote for John Kerry.