Denver Post
Exclusive interview

VP would back ban on gay marriage
Cheney pledges support if Bush seeks amendment
By John Aloysius Farrell
Denver Post Washington Bureau Chief


Sunday, January 11, 2004 -

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney, who argued during the 2000
presidential campaign that the issue of gay marriage is best left to
the states, said Friday he would support a presidential push to ban
same-sex marriage.

Cheney, whose gay daughter, Mary, is a close adviser, said recent
action by courts in Massachusetts and other states that recognize
gays' rights to the civil benefits of marriage has caused the
administration to revisit the need for a constitutional amendment.

Cheney made his comments on gay marriage during an interview with The
Denver Post, in which he also spoke about the war in Iraq and the U.S.
soldiers being killed and wounded there, Western energy issues, and
the Air Force Academy sex scandal. His comments regarding the
sacrifice of U.S. soldiers and their families came one day after a
Black Hawk helicopter crashed near Fallujah in Iraq, killing all nine
soldiers on board, including at least four Fort Carson soldiers.

Cheney, who has visited Fort Carson in the past, will visit Denver on
Monday during a campaign and fundraising stop.

Colorado has become a focal point in the effort to ban gay marriage,
with four members of its congressional delegation having drafted or
supported legislation late last year restricting marriage to a "union
between a man and a woman." During the interview, Cheney said he will
support President Bush if the president pursues a ban on gay marriage.

"What I said in 2000 was that the question of whether or not some sort
of status, legal status or sanction ought to be granted in the case of
a relationship between two individuals of the same sex was
historically a matter the states had decided and resolved, and that is
the way I preferred it," Cheney said.

But "at this stage, obviously, the president is going to have to make
a decision in terms of what administration policy is on this
particular provision, and I will support whatever decision he makes."

Daughter in prominent role

Cheney declined to say whether he has discussed the issue of same- sex
marriage with the president, or has shared his perspective as the
parent of a gay daughter.

"I don't talk about the advice I give the president," Cheney said.
"That is why he listens."

Mary Cheney is a well-known figure in the Colorado gay community,
having worked for the Colorado Rockies baseball team and Coors Brewing
Co., where, among other duties, she worked on outreach to gays and
lesbians.

She worked as a personal aide to her father in the 2000 presidential
campaign, when her longtime relationship with her lesbian partner
briefly became grist for the national news. She received her MBA from
the University of Denver in 2002 and joined the Bush-Cheney '04
campaign last July as the director of vice presidential operations.

In a nationally televised debate in 2000 with the Democratic vice
presidential candidate, Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, Cheney was
asked about gay marriage.

"The fact of the matter is, we live in a free society, and freedom
means freedom for everybody," Cheney said. "And I think that means
that people should be free to enter into any kind of relationship they
want to enter into. It's really no one else's business in terms of
trying to regulate or prohibit behavior in that regard.

"The next step, then ... is the question you ask of whether or not
there ought to be some kind of official sanction, if you will, of the
relationship. That matter is regulated by the states. I think
different states are likely to come to different conclusions, and
that's appropriate. I don't think there should necessarily be a
federal policy."

There already is a federal law - the Defense of Marriage Act - that
defines marriage as a union only between a man and a woman.

But some conservatives, including Colorado Sen. Wayne Allard,
R-Loveland, and Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Fort Morgan, believe the
Defense of Marriage Act is insufficient protection, and have sponsored
a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriages.

"Everybody is concerned (that) recent court cases, in Massachusetts,
for example, raise the possibility here that the Defense of Marriage
Act that is already on the books, that has been broadly supported, may
not stand the test, and therefore they are looking at other measures,
such as a constitutional amendment," Cheney said.

Bush said recently that he believes marriage should recognize only the
union of a man and a woman, and that he may back a constitutional
amendment or other federal action if the administration's lawyers feel
it is necessary.

, a gay Democratic congressman from Massachusetts, said the vice
president should state clearly whether he has changed his position
since 2000, rather than "mumbling" on the issue. Since Cheney's
statement eased the concerns of gay voters about the Republican ticket
in 2000, Frank said, the vice president owes gays and lesbians a
clearer explanation about his thinking now.

Strong support for war

Elsewhere in the interview, Cheney recalled previous visits to Fort
Carson, where elements of the 4th Infantry Division, which has
suffered a high number of casualties in Iraq, are based, and more
recently to wounded soldiers at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

"They of course have paid a heavy price," Cheney said. "We are
enormously fortunate as a country to have young men and women of that
caliber who are willing to take on obviously one of the most difficult
assignments in terms of providing for the safety and security of the
nation."

When asked if continued casualties might spur him to rethink his
strong and early support for the war, Cheney said, "No."

"I think there is no question but that the policy was absolutely
sound, the right thing to do," he said. "I can think of few times in
our history where there has ever been so close a link between what our
forces are asked to do overseas and our safety and security here at
home. That has been true since 9/11.

"With respect to our operations in Iraq, I think they have been
enormously successful. We have taken down one of the most brutal
dictatorial regimes in modern history, and we've also had enormous
success in Afghanistan."

Cheney, a former secretary of defense, said he was aware "of the
controversies and the problems out at the Air Force Academy" but that
the scandal there, and the findings from a series of investigative
reports by The Post concerning domestic violence and sexual assault in
the military, had not become a matter for White House action.

The vice president expressed confidence that the Defense Department is
doing "a good job with these difficult issues" and said, "It is
absolutely vital that it be clear to everybody that we will not
tolerate that kind of behavior anyplace in the armed services."

Cheney will appear in Colorado this week to campaign and raise funds
for the presidential re-election effort, with Gov. Bill Owens, Allard
and Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell functioning as honorary chairmen.
Cheney brushed aside suggestions that Campbell might decide to forgo
the race, saying he has a 100 percent commitment from Campbell that
the senator will run for re-election.

In a similar vein, Cheney said his doctors have kept careful track of
his health and heart troubles, and that he has assured the president
that he is able and willing to assist in a re-election campaign and
serve a second term.

The vice president defended the administration's recent bullish
efforts to expand exploration and production of natural gas in the
Rocky Mountain region. "There is such an enormous demand for gas out
there around the country. Prices are high, and we need to develop
those resources from the standpoint of our national energy
requirements," he said.

When asked about the environmental cost of such production, Cheney
expressed confidence that development could go hand in hand with
conservation.

"One of the things I was always sensitive to as a Wyoming congressman
was all those folks on both coasts who want to tell us how to do our
business in the Rocky Mountains when in fact we have done a great job
protecting and preserving the environment over the years," Cheney
said. "That is why they like to come to places like Jackson Hole and
Aspen to vacation."