Mary Cheney, the vice president's openly gay daughter and political adviser, has revealed today that she is pregnant, bringing good news to the vice president's family and a very angry reaction from Christian conservatives. 

Mary Cheney, 37, and her partner of 15 years, Heather Poe, 45, are expecting a baby, said Lea Anne McBride, a spokeswoman for the vice president. The baby is due in late spring.

Many in this key Republican constituency say that it's a disaster for the vice president's daughter to have a child without an apparent father.

"The vice president and Mrs. Cheney are looking forward with eager anticipation" to the arrival of their sixth grandchild, McBride said.

McBride would not answer questions about how the child was conceived, or say whether the vice president considered Heather Poe, Mary Cheney's partner of 15 years, the other mother of the child.

While Grandma and Grandpa Cheney are no doubt celebrating the pregnancy, the fact that their sixth grandchild will have two mommies is potentially awkward for the Bush administration.

The administration has called for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and won re-election in 2004 in no small part because of its opposition to gay and lesbian marriage.

Many political observers believe that issue helped motivate Christian conservatives to the polls, especially in key swing states such as Ohio, where a statewide referendum banning same-sex marriage was on the ballot.

"I believe that marriage is a union between a man and a woman," President Bush said to the applause of an Iowa crowd on Oct. 26, 2006, after the New Jersey Supreme Court instructed the state legislature to provide the same legal rights to same-sex couples as to straight couples, leaving it up to lawmakers as to whether such arrangement would be called "marriage." "And I believe it's a sacred institution that is critical to the health of our society and the well-being of families, and it must be defended."

As Texas governor, Bush opposed gay couples being able to legally adopt. "I believe children ought to be adopted in families with a woman and a man who are married," he said. In an interview last year with the New York Times, the president said "studies have shown that the ideal is where a child is raised in a married family with a man and a woman."

Vice President Cheney has said that he opposes a federal amendment banning same-sex marriage , preferring to leave that up to the states. And Mary Cheney clearly disagrees with her father's boss, the man she worked hard to re-elect in 2000 and 2004. Earlier this year, she told ABC News' Diane Sawyer that "every study has confirmed what matters is that children are raised in a loving and supportive environment. And there's no reason why that can't be provided by a same sex couple."

She also told Sawyer that from her perspective, "Heather and I already are married. We have built a home and a life together. I hope I get to spend the rest of my life with her. The way I look at it is, we're just waiting for state and Federal law to catch up with us."

（Agencies）