PressEthic

Normally, two gay woman having a child together would not register a blip on media's radar -- unless the woman happened to be in Hollywood, ala Melissa Etheridge. But in this case, the pregnant woman happens to be Mary Cheney, daughter of Vice-President Dick Cheney. With Cheney's allegiance to the family values platform of conservatism, leftwing and rightwing groups quickly seized on the announcement.

Ostensibly, Mr. Cheney put the notion forward that his is merely a happy grandfather: "'The vice president and Mrs. Cheney are looking forward with eager anticipation' to the arrival of their sixth grandchild," McBride said in an Associated Press story.

Underneath, the story presents a problem for Mr. Cheney, as it is a direct contradiction to President Bush's stance on homosexuality, especially if Mary and her partner, Heather, decide to get married.

"Dick Cheney said that he opposes a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage; he explained that he has a gay daughter and that marriage policy is best left to the states," wrote Roger Hodge in a Harper's article.

Gay Right's advocates immediately jumped on the irony: "Family Pride, which advocates on behalf of gay and lesbian families, noted that Virginia last month became one of 27 states with a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

'Unless they move to a handful of less restrictive states, Heather will never be able to have a legal relationship with her child," said Family Pride executive director Jennifer Chrisler," wrote David Crary.

Not to be kept silent, conservative groups had their own take to Mary's pregnancy.

Janice Crouse of Concerned Women for America described the pregnancy as "unconscionable."

"It's very disappointing that a celebrity couple like this would deliberately bring into the world a child that will never have a father," said Crouse, a senior fellow at the group's think tank. "They are encouraging people who don't have the advantages they have."

Crouse said there was no doubt that the news would, in conservatives' eyes, be damaging to the Bush administration, which already has been chided by some leaders on the right for what they felt was halfhearted commitment to anti-abortion and anti-gay-rights causes in this year's general election.

Carrie Gordon Earll, a policy analyst for the conservative Christian ministry Focus on the Family, expressed empathy for the Cheney family but depicted the pregnancy as unwise.

"Just because you can conceive a child outside a one-woman, one-man marriage doesn't mean it's a good idea," Earll said. "Love can't replace a mother and a father."

In an America, where many Christians and conservatives see homosexuality as a sin, this debate is not going away anytime. But Mary Cheney's child, regardless of spin, forces media and, subsequently, society to confront many issues as the definition of family changes.