The Joplin Globe, Joplin, MO

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June 22, 2012

Cheney family ’delighted’ as lesbian daughter marries partner

Tribune Washington Bureau (MCT))

WASHINGTON — Mary Cheney, the openly gay daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, has married her longtime partner, Heather Poe.

The couple, who live together in Virginia and have two children, were married Friday morning in Washington, D.C., according to the Daily Caller, a news site co-founded by Neil Patel, a former adviser to the former vice president.

“Mary and Heather have been in a committed relationship for many years, and we are delighted that they were able to take advantage of the opportunity to have that relationship recognized,” the Cheney family said in a statement. “Mary and Heather and their children are very important and much loved members of our family and we wish them every happiness.”

The Cheneys are perhaps the most prominent Republican family to embrace same-sex marriage.

Dick Cheney has long believed that the question of same-sex marriage should be left to states, but he also supported an effort by the George W. Bush administration for a constitutional ban on same-sex marriages.

“He sets the policy for this administration, and I support the president,” Cheney said during a 2004 vice presidential debate.

Since leaving office, Cheney now opposes a federal ban.

“I think people ought to be free to enter into any kind of union they wish,” Cheney said in 2009. “Any kind of arrangement they wish. The question of whether or not there ought to be a federal statute to protect this, I don’t support.”

 

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