ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) – The lesbian daughter of conservative Republican Alan Keyes appealed to several hundred people at a rally in Annapolis to provide more support for GLBT young people who have been deserted by their families and too often wind up being victims of violence on the streets.

In her first public appearance since her sexual orientation began to attract public attention, Maya Marcel-Keyes said she was motivated to speak out because of the illness and recent death of a high school friend who was thrown out of the house by his family and by her relationship with her parents.

At home, “things just came to a head. Liberal queer plus conservative Republican just doesn’t mesh well,” she said at a rally sponsored by Equality Maryland to oppose a proposed state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and support bills aimed at guaranteeing more rights for gays and lesbians. “That was making my life a little bit turbulent,” she said.

After her speech, responding to questions from an interviewer for CNN, Marcel-Keyes said her parents “were not too pleased” when they learned she was a lesbian, but she said 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 in August that homosexuality is “selfish hedonism” and that Vice President Dick Cheney’s lesbian daughter is a sinner.

During her speech, Marcel-Keyes contrasted the outpouring of support she received when her sexual orientation became known with that of her friend.

“Like me, he grew up queer in a conservative household,” she said. But where she got hundreds of emails, 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.

“We have to figure out what we can do to make sure that during those times when it seems like everything in the world is turning against them, like everyone in the world is rejecting them, that they know there are resources out there they can turn to, there are people out there who will say to them, ‘I care.’”

Alan Keyes said in a statement: “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.”