Keyes’ Daughter Speaks Out

ANNAPOLIS, Md. —  The daughter of conservative Republican Alan Keyes on Monday 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 his family had thrown him out of the house.

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.”

Later, she told CNN her parents “were not too pleased” when they learned she was a lesbian, and that she loves them “very much, and they love me. They can’t support my activities.”

Her father, the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Illinois last year, created a stir in August when he said during an interview that homosexuality was “selfish hedonism” and that Vice President Dick Cheney’s lesbian daughter was a sinner.

In a statement issued Monday night, Keyes said: “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.”

Marcel-Keyes said she received an outpouring of support when disclosing her sexual orientation, but her friend did not.

“Like me, he grew up queer in a conservative household,” she said. But where she got hundreds of e-mails, offers of a place to stay and a college scholarship, “he’d been out there two years and had gotten nothing.”

“And the worst part is, he isn’t the only one,” Marcel-Keyes said.