Alan Keyes
What do Randall Terry, Pete Knight, and Alan Keyes all have in common?
All have been fervently anti-gay public figures who had gay or lesbian children.
The Republican Keyes, who recently lost big to Democrat Barak Obama in Illinois in the 2004 election, is the newest "family values" trumpeter to hit an off note in his family life. The week of Feb. 14 his 19 year-old daughter Maya Marcel-Keyes came out publicly as a lesbian – and Alan "family values" Keyes kicked her to the curb.
During a Sept. 1, 2004 radio interview on WBBM-AM, Chicago Keyes said, "If my own daughter were a homosexual or a lesbian, I would love my daughter, but I would tell my daughter that she was in sin." This was a couple of days after he called Mary Cheney a "selfish hedonist." Of course, during this interview Keyes already knew his daughter was gay. She came out to him at the end of high school.
In a Feb. 13 interview with The Advocate, Marcel-Keyes said of coming out to her parents, "It was best if we just stayed quiet and pretended the whole queer issue never happened. Occasionally we'd have arguments, or long talks where they reminded me how horrible and sinful homosexuality is, but mostly if it didn't come up, our relationship stayed pretty OK. Recently things have gotten a lot worse, though, because I'm not staying quiet about it anymore."
In a Feb. 14 statement Keyes said, "My daughter is an adult, and she is responsible for her own actions. What she chooses to do has nothing to do with my work or political activities." Compassionate conservatism, indeed.
Thankfully for Marcel-Keyes, who was recently accepted to Brown University, The Point Foundation, a national scholarship organization for LGBT youth, is helping her foot the bill for college. Make a donation at http://www.thepointfoundation.org, because Marcel-Keyes isn't the only kid in this sad situation.
