Chrissy Gephardt, the daughter of Democratic presidential candidate Dick Gephardt, has declared her lesbian orientation and support for same-sex marriage on network television.
 Chrissy Gephardt (courtesy: ABC News) |
In a “coming out” on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Gephardt related how she realized she was a homosexual and the difficult process of coming clean with her husband and political father.
“I met this woman at school, Amy [Loder]. We were having coffee one day at a coffee shop in St. Louis and she said, ‘Chrissy, there’s something I need to tell you. … I’m gay.’ And my heart started racing,” Gephardt said. “I felt like it was coming out of my chest. And I was like, oh, my goodness, that’s it. That’s exactly what this is. I have an absolute crush on her.”
The 30-year-old said she kept her revelation a secret for a year.
“I thought there’s no way that I could ever bring this to my parents, because it would ruin my father’s career,” she said.
Rather than a detriment, Rep. Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., hopes his daughter’s homosexuality gives him an edge on rivals.
As WorldNetDaily reported, Chrissy Gephardt, will play an active role in drumming up votes for her father’s bid for the White House. Roll Call reported last month the Gephardt campaign was shopping for a media outlet to do a “coming out.”
 Rep. Richard Gephardt, D-Mo. |
“I want her help in the campaign,” Gephardt told co-host Alan Murray on CNBC’s “Capital Report.” “She’s going to help with gay and lesbian people, but she’s going to help with people all over [the] country. She’s makes a great presentation, believes in a lot of the same things I do and is going to be a big and important part of the campaign, along with my other children and my wife, Jane.”
Chrissy Gephardt, a social worker in the D.C. area, is now seriously involved with Loder and the couple live together, according to the Gephardt campaign website.
She told ABC she jumped into her father’s campaign with both feet and plans on talking about “gay” and lesbian rights. She said she hopes Americans will learn something new from what she has to say.
“I really want people to know that gay and lesbian Americans are no different than any other Americans,” she said. “We pay taxes. We’re part of the government. We’re employees like anybody else. And we just want to be treated fairly and equally,” she said.
Equal treatment, according to Chrissy, includes the ability to marry.
“Why not go for gay marriage? We wanna have our relationships recognized just like heterosexual couples,” she said.
Candidate Gephardt appears to support the concept, but stumbles on the terminology. He promoted the idea of civil unions to ABC News.
“I think civil unions is gonna be hard to do in the country,” he said. “It’s controversial. I think it solves the majority of the problems that people face, who are discriminated against. And I think if we can get that done, it would be real progress.”
Exit polls showed 4 percent of voters in 2000 were homosexual and nearly 75 percent voted for the Democratic Gore-Lieberman ticket. The nine current Democratic candidates are jockeying for that political clout.
While, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean promotes the law he signed allowing civil unions for homosexuals, Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., backs homosexual adoptions.
Political insiders say Republicans are just as anxious about courting the “gay” vote as the Democrats, but do so by not taking a stance on the issue. One example cited is the Republican leadership’s failure to back Sen. Rick Santorum when he came under attack by homosexual activists and Democrats for defending the Texas sodomy law.
In addition to votes, the candidates are vying for campaign cash.
The Human Rights Campaign, or HRC, the nation’s largest homosexual-rights group, contributed more than $1.2 million in the 2002 election cycle. HRC seeks the legalization of “gay” marriages and homosexual adoption, federal legislation against employment discrimination and hate crimes related to homosexuality and works toward advancing the battle against HIV/AIDS and for better lesbian health.
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