밑에도 글이 있지만 정확히 어제 미국 대통령 후보 간 3차 TV 토론에서 민주당 케리 후보가 체니 부통령의 딸 메리 체니에 대하여 어떠한 말을 했는지 살펴 보시고 판단하시라고 사회자의 그 부분에 대한 질문 및 후보들의 답변을 TV 토론을 주관하는 단체의 site(http://www.debates.org/pages/trans2004d.html)에서 퍼 왔으니 참고하시기 바랍니다. 케리 상원의원의 문제의 발언은 부시 대통령의 답변 직후에 나옵니다. 논란이 되고 있는 케리 후보의 답변도 답변이지만 단순히 동성 결혼 합법화 문제만을 묻지 않고 두 사람의 호모섹슈얼리티에 대한 근본적인 입장 차이를 알게 하여 준 사회자 Bob Schieffer의 질문이 돋보였다는 평도 많더군요.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SCHIEFFER: Mr. President, let's get back to economic issues. But let's shift to some other questions here.

Both of you are opposed to gay marriage. But to understand how you have come to that conclusion, I want to ask you a more basic question. Do you believe homosexuality is a choice?

BUSH: You know, Bob, I don't know. I just don't know. I do know that we have a choice to make in America and that is to treat people with tolerance and respect and dignity. It's important that we do that.

And I also know in a free society people, consenting adults can live the way they want to live.

And that's to be honored.

But as we respect someone's rights, and as we profess tolerance, we shouldn't change -- or have to change -- our basic views on the sanctity of marriage. I believe in the sanctity of marriage. I think it's very important that we protect marriage as an institution, between a man and a woman.

I proposed a constitutional amendment. The reason I did so was because I was worried that activist judges are actually defining the definition of marriage, and the surest way to protect marriage between a man and woman is to amend the Constitution.

It has also the benefit of allowing citizens to participate in the process. After all, when you amend the Constitution, state legislatures must participate in the ratification of the Constitution.

I'm deeply concerned that judges are making those decisions and not the citizenry of the United States. You know, Congress passed a law called DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act.

My opponent was against it. It basically protected states from the action of one state to another. It also defined marriage as between a man and woman.

But I'm concerned that that will get overturned. And if it gets overturned, then we'll end up with marriage being defined by courts, and I don't think that's in our nation's interests.

SCHIEFFER: Senator Kerry?

KERRY: We're all God's children, Bob. And I think if you were to talk to Dick Cheney's daughter, who is a lesbian, she would tell you that she's being who she was, she's being who she was born as.

I think if you talk to anybody, it's not choice. I've met people who struggled with this for years, people who were in a marriage because they were living a sort of convention, and they struggled with it.

And I've met wives who are supportive of their husbands or vice versa when they finally sort of broke out and allowed themselves to live who they were, who they felt God had made them.

I think we have to respect that.

The president and I share the belief that marriage is between a man and a woman. I believe that. I believe marriage is between a man and a woman.

But I also believe that because we are the United States of America, we're a country with a great, unbelievable Constitution, with rights that we afford people, that you can't discriminate in the workplace. You can't discriminate in the rights that you afford people.

You can't disallow someone the right to visit their partner in a hospital. You have to allow people to transfer property, which is why I'm for partnership rights and so forth.

Now, with respect to DOMA and the marriage laws, the states have always been able to manage those laws. And they're proving today, every state, that they can manage them adequately.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

아울러 체니 부통령의 부인인 린 체니 여사가 위 발언 직후에 유세 중에 케리 후보를 비난하며 한 발언은 다음과 같습니다. MSNBC에서 퍼 왔습니다. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6245927/
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Now, you know, I did have a chance to assess John Kerry once more and now the only thing I could conclude: This is not a good man,” Mrs. Cheney said. “Of course, I am speaking as a mom, and a pretty indignant mom. This is not a good man. What a cheap and tawdry political trick.”
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

나아가 오늘은 에드워즈 상원의원의 부인인 엘리자베스 에드워즈 여사가 논전에 가담했더군요. Washingtonpost와 공동 경영하다가 이제는 New York Times가 혼자 운영하는 International Herald Tribune에서 퍼 왔습니다.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/10/14/news/veep.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, John Edwards, said in an ABC radio interview that Lynne Cheney had overreacted. "I think that it indicates a certain degree of shame with respect to her daughter's sexual preferences," Elizabeth Edwards said. "It makes me really sad that that's Lynne's response."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

미국 언론의 반응은 둘로 갈리는 것 같군요. 메리 체니가 이미 2000년에 게이 공화당원들을 조직하여 모금활동 및 선거지원활동을 하였으니 말하자면 스스로 자초한 일("open the door")이라는 취지의 반응이 있는가 하면, 미처 체니 부통령의 딸이 게이라는 것을 몰랐던 보수적 미국 공화당 지지자들에게 이 사실을 분명히 알려서 실망한 그들이 투표하는 것을 포기하게 하려는 미국 민주당의 계산된 선거전략이라는 견해도 있더군요.