Letters to the editor

To the Chicago Tribune:

In explaining why you have endorsed President Bush, the Tribune draws primarily on tired Republican rhetoric casting Kerry and the Democrats as insufficiently hawkish. But in the paragraph on domestic issues, your argument goes beyond banality to the point of near absurdity. Bush would be more successful in "critical areas like public education and health care" because he emphasizes "greater competition"? I don't see how any American who's lived through the past four years can make this assertion with a straight face.

Thankfully, your endorsement this year is entirely out of step with Illinois voters. And it is out of step with the needs of African Americans, women, and gays and lesbians - in other words, the vast majority of Chicagoans - whose rights are under assault by the current administration.

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To USA Today:

Many of us in the gay community are bewildered that anyone believes the claim of the Bush spin doctors that John Kerry somehow invaded the Cheney family's privacy by mentioning the Vice President's openly gay daughter. Indeed, among gay Americans, the hypocrisy of the Cheney family has been a frequent topic of discussion for the past four years. The Vice President accepts his daughter's sexual orientation, yet participates in an administration engaged in the most aggressive assault on gay rights this country has ever seen. It is Cheney, not Kerry, who ought to be apologizing.

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To the New York Times:

I am appalled that William Safire has been so thoroughly taken in by the Bush campaign's assertion that it was somehow scandalous for John Kerry to mention their openly gay daughter ("The Lowest Blow," Oct. 18). It seems to me that Safire must not have any openly gay friends, or at least none that he talks about politics with, because otherwise he would be aware that Dick Cheney's hypocrisy has been a subject of frequent discussion among gay Americans ever since he was tapped to join the Bush ticket in 2000. Most of us think it's appalling that the Vice President, while accepting his lesbian daughter, has silently watched his colleagues launch an unprecedented and mean-spirited assault on gay rights. It is Cheney, not Kerry, who ought to apologize, and whose behavior offends our sense of "decency."


To the Washington Post:

Republicans say it was "inappropriate" for John Kerry to mention Vice President Cheney's lesbian daughter, Mary, in the third debate ("Singling Out Mary Cheney," Oct. 18). But since Ms. Cheney is not only openly gay but has worked as a corporate liaison to the gay community, it is her father, who has collaborated in trying to make his own daughter a second-class citizen, who ought to be explaining his behavior.

As a gay American, I am outraged at the Bush campaign's attempt to cloak his failures and lies in a phony concern for our privacy. Using gay rights as a wedge to polarize the electorate is unfair - and it is fiddling while Baghdad burns.