Leading US Republican Liz Cheney says she ‘got it wrong’ on same-sex marriage
The 55-year-old politician from Wyoming said her family, including her father, were right on the issue.
Words: Alastair James; pictures: Wiki
The leading Republican congresswoman, Liz Cheney, has admitted that she was wrong on the topic of same-sex marriage when she opposed it previously.
The politician, 55, from Wyoming in the United States, had said in a 2013 political campaign that she supported a “traditional” idea of marriage, despite her sister identifying as LGBTQ.
The US congresswoman’s stance reportedly caused a rift within her family, with her father, the former Vice-President, Dick Cheney, coming out in support of same-sex marriage in 2009.
“I was wrong”
In an interview with 60 Minutes for CBS, Ms. Cheney was asked about her stance on same-sex marriage when she admitted: “I was wrong… I was wrong.”
“I love my sister very much. I love her family very much and I was wrong. It is a very personal issue and very personal for my family. I believe that my dad was right. My sister and I have had that conversation,” she continued.
This new position puts Cheney at odds with many of her Republican colleagues and party supporters.
She recalled meeting a transgender woman at a recent event who told Cheney that she didn’t feel often safe, with Cheney saying that they had to end discrimination of all types.
Quoting her father Ms. Cheney added that “freedom means freedom for everybody”.
Liz Cheney (Photo: Wiki)
After her 2013 interview with Fox News, Ms. Cheney’s sister and sister-in-law condemned her stance with her sister Mary telling her “This isn’t just an issue on which we disagree, you’re just wrong – and on the wrong side of history”.
Mary’s partner, Heather Poe, added that they’d had Ms. Cheney to stay at their home before and that she was there for their wedding, where she “didn’t hesitate to tell us how happy she was for us.”
In 2009, Dick Cheney said: “I think that freedom means freedom for everyone. As many of you know, one of my daughters is gay and it is something that, uh, we have lived with for a long time, in our family. I think people ought to be free to enter into any kind of union they wish.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Liz Cheney also called out former President Donald Trump for his actions on 6 January and the Capitol Hill riot. Despite this, she defended supporting Trump through his initial campaign in 2016 and his time in office.
She said: “The line that can’t be crossed is what happened after the election,” referring to the January insurrection.
You can watch the full CBS interview with Liz Cheney here.
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