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What Would Jackie Robinson Do?

By mikethemadbiologist on February 1, 2007.

The right wing furor over vice-presidential daughter Mary Cheney's decision to get pregnant and (hopefully) have a baby with her lesbian partner led Cheney to issue the following statement (italics mine):

This is a baby. This is a blessing from God. It is not a political statement. It is not a prop to be used in a debate by people on either side of an issue. It is my child.

And Jackie Robinson wanting to just play baseball in the majors wasn't a political statement. Or Muhammed Ali's boxing career wasn't a political statement either. But they both realized that what they did transcended being atheletes: they realized they were political symbols, and they accepted the responsibility that came with their status.

I would love to live in an America that just didn't care if a lesbian couple decided to have children. But we don't live in that America. We live in an America where a basic right is denied to people simply because of their sexual orientation. Mary Cheney's decision to raise a child is a political statement, whether or not she chooses to accept that reality. She would do her country a great service if she were to accept and embrace that reality.

Tags
Civil Liberties

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They just interviewed Kareem Abdul Jabbar on NPR the other day. He stated that he was glad that Muhammed Ali made the political statement, because for Kareem, it was all about the personal decision. Since Ali took all the political heat for being first, it was much easier on Kareem.

Mary Cheney is making it easier for the *next* lesbian republican vice-presidential daughter.

Like her father, she wants a deferment. Like her father, she denies reality -- thinks that she is special, and beyond petty things like her society and its rules.

I forgot to mention my first reaction - I hope for the baby's sake they move the hell out of Virginia. I don't know why they live there in the first place.

This is a blessing from God.

Um. With nutcase reactionary Christians about, that is a strong political statement (unfortunately).