Family Values: The Shame of Alan Keyes

I wish I didn't have to blog this story. I wish that those who preach hate would actually recognize their tragic faults when it hits so close to home. But you do have to say this about Alan Keyes: he's consistent. He hates the gays, even if it means hating his own daughter:

ANNAPOLIS, Maryland (AP) -- The daughter of conservative Republican Alan Keyes referred to herself Monday as a "liberal queer" and urged support for gay and lesbian young people who have been deserted by their families.

Maya Marcel-Keyes, 19, addressed a rally sponsored by the gay-rights group Equality Maryland, saying she was motivated to speak out because of her rocky relationship with her parents and the recent death of a friend who had fallen ill after being thrown out of the house by his family.

Marcel-Keyes told several hundred supporters that her sexuality had created a rift in her relationship with her parents.

"Things just came to a head. Liberal queer plus conservative Republican just doesn't mesh well," she said. "That was making my life a little bit turbulent."

As soon as Maya's gayness went public (which it did in a very public way during her father's Senate campaign), Alan Keyes and his wife kicked their daughter off his political campaign, kicked her out of their house, kicked her out of their lives. I don't like how Maya was forced to go public by bloggers (arguably; she did post comments suggestive of her sexual orientation on a public website that bloggers merely called to the attention of a larger group of people), eager to play the blogging of personal destruction (more on that later). But as soon as she did, she was welcomed into a commuinity of like-minded souls. Her father disowned her, and continued to put forward policies that would make her a second-class citizen.

Maya's comments at yesterday's gay-rights rally briefly touch on this shameful behavior, but cast it in a larger context:

The worst part is that he isn't the only one. This past summer I read in the International Herald Tribune something that anyone who has much to do with homeless kids has probably already noticed – approximately 40% of homeless youth were LGBTQ.

For 3-10% of the population to make up 40 per cent of street kids – think about that.  I have known a lot of street kids; and I have known a whole lot of queer street kids, kids who were cut off by their parents solely because of who they are, kids who’d done absolutely nothing to deserve the treatment they were getting.  I've seen these kids struggle out there and I’ve seen these kids die out there – kids like Shymmer, who passed away this Friday – and I have seen far too much silence about the reality of this problem.

I won't be silent any longer.

Maya Keyes deserves the admiration of everyone in this country. Alan Keyes, in my view, deserves nothing but scorn. But he is not alone. There are thousands and thousands of abandoned street kids who don't have the advantage of a high-profile father, who live on the streets, who die on the streets, with no help from their families. This is what we call "family values." Just who do we think are abandoning these gay kids? "Liberal queer plus conservative Republican doesn't mesh well." That statistic about the sheer numbers of homeless kids should send shock waves through all decent Americans.

We've grown and matured as a country from the Purtianical days of sending homosexuals to the woods to be put out of sigh, out of mind. At least some of us have. As for Maya Keyes, who didn't deserve the initial intrusion into her personal life (and I'd say it was an intrusion, and it clearly did have consequences), she's an eloquent champion for human rights, someone whose hand I would be proud to shake.