Mary Cheney is one of two daughters of Vice President Dick Cheney. A 35-year-old lesbian who resides in Colorado with her long-time partner, Mary Cheney has worked on gay issues and on her father’s 2000 vice presidential campaign, and currently spends a large part of her time in Washington working as a close aide to her father.

After President Bush’s recent speech calling for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution banning same-sex marriage, Mary Cheney became the target of gay and lesbian activist organizations urging her to speak out against the administration’s anti-gay views, rather than working silently in support of them. Much of the effort is organized at the website, www.dearmary.com, a project of DontAmend.com and the Equality Campaign, Inc.

After graduating from Colorado College, Cheney went to work as a gay community liaison for Coors Brewing Company, where she was instrumental in ending a 20-year boycott by the gay community of that company. Cheney left Coors in 2000 to work with her father and the Bush campaign. In 2002, Mary Cheney served on the advisory board of the Republican Unity Coalition, a gay-straight alliance formed within the Republican party to help increase tolerance within the party for gays and lesbians, and others.

Cheney currently receives a paycheck of $2,776 every two weeks, for her role as the head of her father’s campaign team. Mary Cheney remains close to her family by all accounts, and has been off limits to reporters throughout the same-sex marriage debate.