Mary Cheney appears on 'Primetime' to hawk new book

Mary Cheney, the lesbian daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney, dodged hypothetical questions, presented her opinion on President Bush and confessed to feeling inferior as a teenager during a rare interview on ABC's "Primetime" on Thursday.
"I struggled with my decision to stay on the 2004 campaign," Cheney told "Primetime" anchor Diane Sawyer. When President Bush said the nation must defend the sanctity of marriage, Cheney refused to attend the State of the Union address.
"I didn't want to be there," she said. "No one banned me from being there. But I didn't want to stand up and cheer."
As the senior campaign advisor for Bush, Cheney acknowledged that while the president was the best choice to carry us through the Iraq war, her opinions on gay marriage and adoption don't match those of the Bush administration.
"Every study has confirmed what matters is children are raised in a loving, supportive environment," Cheney said. "There's no reason that can't be provided by a same-sex couple."
But Cheney dodged whether she thought her father felt the same. "You're going to have to ask my dad that one," she told Sawyer. "I'm not here to present policy opinions from other individuals."
Cheney also wasn't upfront about her opinion on the administration's ruling that homosexuality is incompatible with military service and said she wouldn't ask her father to change the "don't ask, don't tell" rule.
"My dad knows my position on gays in the military," she said. "We discuss and debate them [our opinions]. Dinnertime can always be an adventure at the Cheney house, but those are always private discussions."
Cheney, who's been with her partner Heather Poe for 14 years, said it feels like she's already married to Heather – just not legally. "We have built a home and a life together," she said. "I hope I get to spend the rest of my life with her. The way I look at it is we're just waiting for state and federal law to catch up with us."
Growing up, Cheney said she felt out of place and realized as a teenager that she was gay. "There's not a moment I can ever point to and say, 'That's when I knew I was different, that's when I knew I was gay,'" she said. "It was just sort of this thing that dawned on me over time."
While her parents accepted their daughter's homosexuality, her mom worried about what her daughter would face. Her father told her, "You're my daughter, and I love you, and I just want you to be happy."
Sawyer asked Cheney if President Bush's opinion toward gays would be different if he had a gay daughter. "I, Diane, am not in a position to sort of talk about hypotheticals for somebody else. I don't even do hypotheticals for myself."
Cheney's memoir, "Now It's My Turn: A Daughter's Chronicle of Political Life," is in stores now.