Gephardt's lesbian daughter comes out for campaign

Dick Gephardt's daughter Chrissy is preparing to campaign for her father's bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in a way no daughter has done before--as an out and vocal member of the gay and lesbian community. According to the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call, Chrissy will be aggressive in helping her father, a congressman from Missouri and the former House minority leader, solicit gay and lesbian votes. Vice President Dick Cheney's daughter Mary also is a lesbian, but she has never spoken publicly about her sexual orientation since her father joined George W. Bush's ticket in 2000 or since her father has been in office. Chrissy Gephardt, however, is not hiding the fact that she is a lesbian. An April 26 Boston Globe story about civil unions reports that Dick Gephardt "has a daughter who is gay, a fact he and his campaign neither conceal nor trumpet." And to that point, Gephardt's campaign Web site says that Chrissy lives with her partner, Amy, in Washington, D.C., where she works with female survivors of trauma and abuse at a mental health agency.