Now Its My Turn A Daughters Chronicle of Political Life

In the most eagerly awaited political memoir of the season, Mary Cheney presents a behind-the-scenes look at the high-intensity world of presidential politics and talks for the first time about her life, her family, her political views and her role in the campaigns of 2000 and 2004.

As a senior adviser to her father, the vice president, she was in the middle of every major event of the 2000 and 2004 presidential contests — at the conventions, the debates, and on the trail. Both elections made history — and so did Mary. And for the first time ever, she writes about what it was like to be at the center of her father’s campaigns as his daughter, as a member of the senior staff, and, though she never intended it, as a political target for the other side.

In her frank, funny, and down-to-earth memoir, Mary Cheney describes life inside the bubble of a national campaign. She talks about her close relationship with her

parents, how it feels to be pursued by the press, and what it was like when John Edwards and John Kerry made her sexual orientation an issue in live debates televised to millions of Americans. As she describes it, life inside a presidential campaign can be uplifting,

frustrating, and heartbreaking, but no matter what else it may be, it’s always entertaining.

User Ratings and Reviews

1 Star Absolutely terrible
Anyone who rated this book above 2 stars has no idea what a good book is. Instead of taking the opportunity to write a compelling book all she seemed to do was churn out a boring, self-important piece of literature. It seemed more like she rushed it out just for the pay check more than to tell her story and her hardships of being a lesbian and a daughter of one of the most powerful conservative figures in the US. This book was just awful and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.

4 Stars Mary Cheney’s Strength
A good read. Mary is real. Her energetic, insightful support of her Dad’s political efforts and her description of that trail is entertaining. Her homosexuality is but a sad, sterile part of the person she is.

3 Stars Misleading title sets readers up for disappointment
I’m the mother of a lesbian daughter, and an activist who works for equal rights. During the last presidential election, I wondered how Mary Cheney was able to reconcile her sexual orientation and her loving commitment to her partner with a leading role in the reelection campaign of a political party that would write second class status into the U.S. Constitution for Mary, her partner Heather, and all other lesbian and gay citizens.

The title, Now It’s My Turn, implies some self-revelation of thoughts and emotions held back during the campaign for fear of jeopardizing her father’s re-election. Instead (as other reader reviewers noted) the book’s content is reflected accurately only by the subtitle: “a daughter’s chronicle of political life.” This day-by-day account of the vicissitudes of life on the campaign trail is competently, occasionally humorously, written, but not what I expected.

For me, in fact, the book raises more questions than it answers. It’s obvious that Mary Cheney is devoted to her father — her depiction of him comes across as near idolatry. But were there NEVER any strains in their household? According to her, she came out to her parents while a junior in high school. Her father immediately told her he loved her and just wanted her to be happy. Her mother worried about the difficulties she would face in her life ahead, but came to understand that as a “secondary issue,” once Mary “explained that my life would actually be much harder if I had to lie about who I was.”

From that point on, she describes both parents as totally supportive. Yet, from news sources other than Mary’s memoir, it seems obvious that this support was at times strained in the Cheney family. Take Lynne Cheney’s angry response, during the 2000 campaign, to an interview question about her daughter’s lesbianism by ABC’s Cokie Roberts. “She has declared no such thing,” Lynne Cheney snapped. That hardly spells total support to me.

From volunteering for a number of years in a support group run by Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), I know that few parents indeed take an announcement by their child that they are gay or lesbian with complete equanimity. Even mothers and fathers like myself, who identify as “liberals,” take one step forward and one step back toward complete acceptance. Doubtless, the Cheneys’ journey to “total support” was not instantaneous. Describing more of their struggle would have been helpful to parents undergoing own “journey.”

But Mary Cheney herself seems to take a step forward, a step back. Again from other news sources, I know that before taking a paid position with the Republican campaign, she worked in public relations for the Coors Brewing Company, doing outreach as a “liaison” to the gay and lesbian community. This is hardly a closeted position, and, indeed, she writes in Now It’s My Turn that her sexual orientation was never a secret.

Yet, she declines to identify herself as a lesbian, preferring the more “politically neutral term,” gay. And she seems angrier at Edward’s and Kerry’s mention of her orientation during the debates than by President Bush’s support for the Federal Marriage Amendment, even though the amendment would not only bar same-sex marriage, but would also prevent both Federal and state governments from enacting any sort of domestic partnership or civil union law that would give unmarried couples any of the rights or responsibilities of marriage.

It’s not till page 173 that she even mentions the Federal Marriage Amendment, and then addresses the problems it caused her in the most cursory terms. She decided (after seeing an advance copy of the speech) not to attend the 2004 State of the Union address where Bush voiced his support for the amendment, but made up her mind to stay on as director of vice-presidential operations for Bush-Cheney ‘04 because she had made a commitment. And, more importantly, because of her strong belief in her father.

Another reader reviewer, who describes herself as a lesbian from Colorado, commented that despite her (the reviewer’s) support for equal rights, she was a Republican supporter because she believed that crushing terrorists was the most important issue, and that she saw this as Mary Cheney’s position as well as her own. But though that may help explain Cheney’s decision to stay part of the Republican campaign, it doesn’t tell me why she was so upset by being called a lesbian during the political debates.

In fact, upset is a mild word. Mary Cheney describes herself as infuriated by both John Edward’s and John Kerry’s mention of her orientation during the vice-presidential and presidential debates, respectively. I didn’t remember Edward’s words that well, but Cheney’s report of him saying, “I think the vice president and his wife love their daughter….very much,” hardly seems a grievous insult, nor does his praise of them for embracing her. I do remember Cheney immediately thanking Edwards for his “kind words” about his family. But I never would have guessed, till reading it in his daughter’s book, that Dick Cheney meant this as a kind of double-talk. That is, the Cheney family saw Edward’s praise as a political ploy “that would remind everyone in the known universe, particularly those who might object, that I was gay.” Cheney’s thanks were intended solely to shut off any further discussion of this topic.

I do remember Kerry’s statement in the presidential debate very well. In response to the question, “Do you believe homosexuality is a choice?” Kerry said, “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 remember this so well because, as the mother of a lesbian daughter, I felt Kerry’s answer was both good and sensitive. Perhaps he was “targeting” Mary Cheney — as she claims — and looking for any excuse to mention her orientation. It didn’t come across that way to me. To me, Kerry was saying that lesbians and gays are ordinary people who are members of families, including families who are prominent members of the administration. By singling her out for mention, he was making the point that she had grown up in a loving, stable family, with mainstream values, and that nothing in her parents’ way of life or child-rearing practices caused one of their two children to grow up gay.

It seemed to me, further, that he was making the point that gay and lesbian people are not some strange species, but our children, or our siblings or our aunts and uncles. They are born with the inclination to find a loving relationship with someone of their own sex, just as some children are born with the inclination to use their left rather than right hands. It hardly seemed “a cheap and tawdry political trick,” as Mary Cheney quotes her mother’s response.

I once read an article on writing that said many writers write to find out what they think, rather than to express their already formed thoughts. So it is with this review. I had expected to simply reiterate my opening thoughts that the book revealed little about the private Mary Cheney. But I find myself reaching a different conclusion. I think she does reveal herself. Despite being out in her previous employment and her spousal relationship, Mary Cheney’s views in Now It’s My Turn seem to bear a close resemblance to don’t-ask-don’t-tell. It’s all right to be out as long as no one mentions it too loudly, or broadcasts that information. Her inner mindset seems driven more by political expediency than by self-acceptance or pride.

It makes me sad.

3 Stars She Didn’t Take Her Turn
I was raised in Republican country and currently live in the Democrat-heavy Midwest. I’ve struggled with every vote I’ve ever cast because certain issues are so party-specific. I picked up this book in hopes I’d get to see a lesbian’s in-the-know perspective of the Republican Party. All I got was a lesbian’s retelling of historical events during two Presidential election campaigns. The book would be good for a political history class, but I was very disappointed in Cheney’s missed opportunity to give the American public a real perspective of how her sexuality impacted her father’s campaign.

She spends time telling about things like how the Secret Service agents saw them in their pajamas, about how her mother carried a wooden box with her to use when she spoke at a podium, and how they had to change carpet in one of her father’s hotel rooms because the air conditioner leaked. She spends very little time discussing her struggle with Republican stances, how Bush dealt with her orientation, and how her partner actually supported her. She missed the mark on telling how she reconciled the proposed marriage amendment with her personal life.

Bottom line… I wasn’t expecting a retelling of the campaign and a personal description of Dick Cheney and George Bush. I heard enough of that on the news. I was hoping for a personal story about Mary Cheney. She didn’t take a turn, she passed it on to the politicians.

1 Star Ms. Cheney’s only talent is how to COMPLAIN!
It seems that if one were to grow up in a family of wealth and power that they would have a positive outlook on life. Not so with Ms. Cheney. She spends almost the entire book telling about how mean people were to her on the campaign trail and whines constantly about the toils of politics.

In addition, she missed a great opportunity to tell about the issues that confront an individual growing up gay in a conservative family. This along with the fact that the book must have been written by an 8th grader points to a poor read.

I would give it zero stars if possible.

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