February 14, 2005 — The daughter of former Republican Party senate candidate Alan Keyes publicly acknowledged Monday that she is a lesbian.
The daughter of former Republican Party senate candidate Alan Keyes publicly acknowledged Monday that she is a lesbian.
During the Republican National Convention, Alan Keyes made headlines when he condemned gays and lesbians. His daughter says she has been ostracized from the family.
"God works in really strange ways sometimes. There are times in life when he just doesn't sort of nudge you gently in the direction he wants you to go, he sort of takes a two by four and whacks you upside the head," said Maya Keyes, Alan Keyes' 19-year-old daughter.
At a gay rights rally in Annapolis, Md., Maya Keyes said she is coming out as a lesbian in response to escalating tensions with her parents, including her arch-conservative father, whom she worked for in last year's Illinois senate race. Keyes said she also wanted to highlight the struggle of gays in the closet, including a gay friend who died last week after months on the street.
During last year's senate race, Keyes referred to gays and lesbians as "hedonistic sinners" [specifically, the Vice President's daughter] and talked hypothetically about his own family.
"If my own daughter were a homosexual, or a lesbian, I would love my daughter, but I would tell my daughter that she was in sin," Keyes said in August.
Later, as rumors swirled around his daughter's pained admissions of sexual confusion and home tensions on an Internet blog page, Keyes defended his hard line.
"Before I deny god, before I deny Christ, before I deny my faith, I would die. Surely, then you would understand that I consider the eternal salvation of my children to be the real aim of my parenting, not how they feel today," said Keyes.
When asked Monday if she dislikes her parents, Maya Keyes said she loves them very much and they love her.
"My daughter is an adult and she is responsible for her own actions. What she chooses to do has nothing to do with my work or political activities," Keyes said in response to his daughter's announcement.
Maya told the Washington Post Monday her parents kicked her out of the house and will not pay her college tuition.But a family friend has a very different take, saying Maya has been self-destructive and needs psychiatric help, not college. The friend says Maya has not been kicked out of the family home, but she is no longer welcomed to stay at the downtown Chicago apartment that Keyes and members of his new political organization use.
