Daughter Spurs Gephardt's Changed View on Gays.
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WASHINGTON, Oct. 31 — The first hint of the unexpected was in the annual Christmas card from Congress. There, in the photo of Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri and his smiling family, stood his daughter Chrissy with her arm around another woman.
Mr. Gephardt sent out more than 2,000 of the Christmas cards last year, letting his constituents and colleagues know for the first time that his 30-year-old daughter was proudly and openly gay. Since then, she has become one of the public faces of his presidential campaign and something of a celebrity.
Her transformation from a married social worker into an outspoken advocate for gay rights has been widely chronicled. But what is less commonly known is that her journey would have been far more difficult without her father's.
Mr. Gephardt's decision to turn the spotlight on his daughter underscores his own evolution in 27 years in Congress. In the early 1980's, he opposed abortion, school busing and federally financed legal services for gay men and lesbians.
Over the years, he has changed those positions and today is hailed by gay and lesbian rights groups for sponsoring legislation against hate crimes and discrimination and for being the first presidential hopeful to give a gay relative such a prominent and public platform.
"My dad is ever evolving," Ms. Gephardt likes to tell her audiences. "I'm working on him."
One of those areas is gay marriage, which she avidly supports and he does not.
The daughter's presence is not entirely free of calculation. Polls suggest that Mr. Gephardt's fortunes have risen in recent weeks in Iowa, with its crucial early caucuses and where he is in a tight race with former Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont. Mr. Gephardt needs liberal voters, and such voters tend to support gay rights. A campaign letter, sent to Democratic voters, emphasizes his support of gay concerns and includes a letter from Ms. Gephardt.
Though many of the Democratic hopefuls, including Mr. Gephardt, oppose gay marriage, nearly all support measures that would bar discrimination against gays in the workplace, increase financing for AIDS treatment and legalize civil unions, allowing gays and their partners to enjoy the legal rights accorded to married people. Experts say that is a seismic shift from the 80's and early 90's, when gay rights rarely figured so prominently on the political agenda.
The shift reflects what analysts and pollsters describe as a widening acceptance of gay men and lesbians in American political and cultural life over the past decade. Mr. Gephardt, 62, says his views have shifted as he met people directly affected by his votes in Congress and considered what it would be like to walk in their shoes.
It cannot have been easy. The son of a milk-truck driver, Mr. Gephardt grew up in a religious family in segregated St. Louis in the 40's and 50's. His mother hoped that he would become a minister, and he was a youth leader in the Third Baptist Church.
When he was growing up, he said, he never knew anyone who was openly gay, and people often made fun of homosexuality.
"It was seen as abnormal behavior," he said. "It was a very different time, but that's the way it was.
"You learn as you go through life. You meet people, and if you listen to people — and I do try to listen to people — you can really learn. And I've learned."
Mr. Gephardt acknowledges that his metamorphosis has sometimes been awkward and uncomfortable. He has been accused of opportunism, particularly when he first reversed his positions on busing and abortion rights before running for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988.
He says some colleagues questioned his judgment when he hired Steve Elmendorf, an openly gay man, as his chief of staff in 1992, long before he learned that his daughter is a lesbian.
His decision to include his daughter in his campaign and her partner, Amy Loder, in the family photograph and in brochures has touched off angry letters and telephone calls from conservative-minded supporters.
But perhaps toughest of all has been confronting his own position on gay marriage when he looks in the green eyes of his daughter, who said two years ago that she is a lesbian.
The issue is no longer an abstract argument in the halls of Congress, but an intensely and wrenchingly personal debate across the family dinner table.
"He knows I disagree with him," said Ms. Gephardt, who describes her experiences over the last two years as "an emotional roller coaster
Here is the link.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 31 — The first hint of the unexpected was in the annual Christmas card from Congress. There, in the photo of Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri and his smiling family, stood his daughter Chrissy with her arm around another woman.
Mr. Gephardt sent out more than 2,000 of the Christmas cards last year, letting his constituents and colleagues know for the first time that his 30-year-old daughter was proudly and openly gay. Since then, she has become one of the public faces of his presidential campaign and something of a celebrity.
Her transformation from a married social worker into an outspoken advocate for gay rights has been widely chronicled. But what is less commonly known is that her journey would have been far more difficult without her father's.
Mr. Gephardt's decision to turn the spotlight on his daughter underscores his own evolution in 27 years in Congress. In the early 1980's, he opposed abortion, school busing and federally financed legal services for gay men and lesbians.
Over the years, he has changed those positions and today is hailed by gay and lesbian rights groups for sponsoring legislation against hate crimes and discrimination and for being the first presidential hopeful to give a gay relative such a prominent and public platform.
"My dad is ever evolving," Ms. Gephardt likes to tell her audiences. "I'm working on him."
One of those areas is gay marriage, which she avidly supports and he does not.
The daughter's presence is not entirely free of calculation. Polls suggest that Mr. Gephardt's fortunes have risen in recent weeks in Iowa, with its crucial early caucuses and where he is in a tight race with former Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont. Mr. Gephardt needs liberal voters, and such voters tend to support gay rights. A campaign letter, sent to Democratic voters, emphasizes his support of gay concerns and includes a letter from Ms. Gephardt.
Though many of the Democratic hopefuls, including Mr. Gephardt, oppose gay marriage, nearly all support measures that would bar discrimination against gays in the workplace, increase financing for AIDS treatment and legalize civil unions, allowing gays and their partners to enjoy the legal rights accorded to married people. Experts say that is a seismic shift from the 80's and early 90's, when gay rights rarely figured so prominently on the political agenda.
The shift reflects what analysts and pollsters describe as a widening acceptance of gay men and lesbians in American political and cultural life over the past decade. Mr. Gephardt, 62, says his views have shifted as he met people directly affected by his votes in Congress and considered what it would be like to walk in their shoes.
It cannot have been easy. The son of a milk-truck driver, Mr. Gephardt grew up in a religious family in segregated St. Louis in the 40's and 50's. His mother hoped that he would become a minister, and he was a youth leader in the Third Baptist Church.
When he was growing up, he said, he never knew anyone who was openly gay, and people often made fun of homosexuality.
"It was seen as abnormal behavior," he said. "It was a very different time, but that's the way it was.
"You learn as you go through life. You meet people, and if you listen to people — and I do try to listen to people — you can really learn. And I've learned."
Mr. Gephardt acknowledges that his metamorphosis has sometimes been awkward and uncomfortable. He has been accused of opportunism, particularly when he first reversed his positions on busing and abortion rights before running for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988.
He says some colleagues questioned his judgment when he hired Steve Elmendorf, an openly gay man, as his chief of staff in 1992, long before he learned that his daughter is a lesbian.
His decision to include his daughter in his campaign and her partner, Amy Loder, in the family photograph and in brochures has touched off angry letters and telephone calls from conservative-minded supporters.
But perhaps toughest of all has been confronting his own position on gay marriage when he looks in the green eyes of his daughter, who said two years ago that she is a lesbian.
The issue is no longer an abstract argument in the halls of Congress, but an intensely and wrenchingly personal debate across the family dinner table.
"He knows I disagree with him," said Ms. Gephardt, who describes her experiences over the last two years as "an emotional roller coaster
