U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) admitted she was wrong when, in 2013, she very publicly came out against same-sex marriage despite her sister being a lesbian who is married to a woman and raising two children together. But some in the LGBTQ community, along with activists and allies, are still skeptical, pointing to her record on related issues.
“I was wrong. I was wrong,” Cheney told “60 Minutes” in an interview that aired Sunday evening, but she also continued to insist marriage equality is a “very personal issue,” while it is actually a civil rights issue. She called it “very personal for my family,” saying, “I believe that my dad was right. And my sister and I have had that conversation.”
But her sister, Mary Cheney, made clear marriage wasn’t a “personal issue” eight years ago. It’s about civil rights.
“Liz — this isn’t just an issue on which we disagree — you’re just wrong — and on the wrong side of history,” Mary Cheney wrote on Facebook.
On Sunday Congresswoman Cheney, who has voted against the LGBTQ Equality Act and against reauthorizing the Violence Against Woman Act (VAWA), said of LGBTQ equality, “this is an issue that we have to recognize, you know, as human beings that we need to work against discrimination of all kinds in our country, in our state. We were at an event, a few nights ago and there was a young woman who said she doesn’t feel safe, sometimes, because she’s transgender, and nobody should feel unsafe. Freedom means freedom for everybody.”
While some see that as a marvelous transformation – Cheney was once also he founder and the head of an anti-Islam group, LGBTQ activists and allies expressed skepticism, or at least the need for more proof than just words.