DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) – Vice President Dick Cheney, whose daughter Mary is a lesbian, spoke supportively about gay relationships on Aug. 24, saying “freedom means freedom for everyone.”

At a campaign rally in this Mississippi River town, Cheney was asked about his stand on same-sex marriage – an issue for which his boss, President George W. Bush, has pushed for a constitutional amendment banning such unions.

“Lynne and I have a gay daughter, so it’s an issue our family is very familiar with,” Cheney told an audience that included his daughter. “With the respect to the question of relationships, my general view is freedom means freedom for everyone … People ought to be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to.

“The question that comes up with the issue of marriage is what kind of official sanction or approval is going to be granted by government? Historically, that’s been a relationship that has been handled by the states. The states have made that fundamental decision of what constitutes a marriage,” he said.

Bush backs a constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage, a move Cheney says was prompted by various judicial rulings, including the action in Massachusetts that made same-sex marriage legal.

“I think his perception was that the courts, in effect, were beginning to change, without allowing the people to be involved,” Cheney said. “The courts were making the judgment for the entire country.”

Last month, Lynne Cheney said states should have the final say over the legal status of personal relationships, a comment that came just days before the Senate failed to back the ban.

Cheney said the amendment did not have the votes to pass, but he also said the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which President Bill Clinton signed into law in 1996, may be enough.

The Cheneys have two daughters, both of whom are working on the campaign. Mary Cheney is director of vice presidential operations for the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign. She held a public role as her father’s assistant in the 2000 campaign and helped the GOP recruit gay voters during the 2002 midterm elections.

During the 2000 campaign, vice presidential candidate Dick Cheney took the position that states should decide legal issues about personal relationships and that people should be free to enter relationships of their choosing.

Sens. John Kerry of Massachusetts and John Edwards of North Carolina oppose the amendment. The Democratic candidates also oppose same-sex marriage, but defend same-sex couples’ right to the same legal protections as those conferred in marriage.

Steven Fisher, spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights advocacy group, said Cheney’s remarks show a stark difference with Bush’s efforts “to put discrimination in the Constitution.”

“President Bush is feeling the heat,” Fisher said. “The administration has been using gay Americans to drive a wedge into the electorate. There are millions of American families who have gay family members and friends, who are offended by the president’s use of discrimination.”