As everyone knows, Mary Cheney is pregnant. She's settled with a long-term partner, so that's all well and good (single parenthood is no sort of fun). Interestingly, the couple live in Virginia, which not only outlaws gay marriage, but which invalidates all contracts that a same-sex couple might protect parental interests, financial and medical. (Virginia is for haters.)

Anyway, the interesting thing is the backlash from the right. Selected quotes follow.

Paul Cameron, Family Research Council:

By this selfish action, Cheney is not merely disrupting society, she is being cruel to her child. ...Her pregnancy is further evidence that participation in homosexual activity distorts value systems, inducing practitioners to harm the commonweal. Our society already has too many children born without the benefits of marriage; Cheney's action is not only a bad example, but poor treatment of an innocent child.

Kathryn Lopez, National Review:

Yes, I think fatherhood is crucial and am opposed to redefining marriage and all the rest. And my "deafening silence" on the Mary Cheney "issue" (what nonsense) doesn't change that. But unless Mary Cheney asks to be a spokeswoman on this issue, folks ought to leave her alone.

Janice Crouse, Concerned Women for America:

Janice Crouse of Concerned Women for America described the pregnancy as "unconscionable." "It's very disappointing that a celebrity couple like this would deliberately bring into the world a child that will never have a father," said Crouse, a senior fellow at the group's think tank. "They are encouraging people who don't have the advantages they have."

Peter LaBarbera, Americans for Truth:

Obviously, we’re saddened at the spectacle of the Vice President’s daughter, Mary Cheney, living in an open lesbian relationship, and now bringing a child into a home that is fatherless by design. In our view, this is another case of the “gay” movement putting its wants (in this case, having a child) above what’s best for children. “Two mommies” or “two daddies” will never substitute for a home with a married mom and a dad, and it is sad when men or women model immoral homosexual behavior before innocent children in a home setting.

Professional blowhard Jonah Goldberg feels some strain, but blames it on ... wait for it ... liberals. Not the elite, just liberals in general:
Jonah Goldberg, NRO:

I've gotten piles of email from people egging me on to demonize Mary Cheney. To date, all of them have been from liberals and gay-marriage obsessives. It's tails-we-win-heads-you-lose baiting. If I criticize her, I'm a jerk. If I don't, I'm a coward who doesn't have the courage of my bigotry, to paraphrase one reader. It's all intellectually tawdry nonsense. What they're really cranky about is that I won't — and don't — play into their convenient stereotype, which is what they want me to do.
Conveniently, Jonah ignores the contradiction of being a cheerleader for a party that uses gays every two to four years to polarize the electorate, and yet is filled with closet tolerants. Including himself.

Anyway, please forgive all of the quotes; I just wanted to provide an appropriately distasteful sample of the rhetoric.