Mary Cheney

Actress Alison Pill portrayed Mary Cheney in the 2018 film Vice, a biographical film about Dick Cheney in which Mary's sexuality is given as her father's reason for not running for president.

In 2015, when asked if she and her sister had mended their relationship, Mary Cheney said, "I don't have to answer that."

In 2014, Cheney's consulting firm BKM Strategies was apparently responsible for a writing campaign in support of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. Of the nearly 125,000 comments filed with the State Department, at least 98,000 contained similar pro-pipeline language and came from individuals listing BKM Strategies as the originating organization, according to the nonprofit Sunlight Foundation.

In 2013, she was a signatory to an amicus curiae brief submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court in support of same-sex marriage during the Hollingsworth v. Perry case.

In 2013, Mary Cheney's older sister Liz, who was running for a Senate seat in Wyoming, stated during an interview on Fox News Sunday that she does not support same-sex marriage. In response, Mary Cheney denounced her sister's remarks, writing in a Facebook post that "[e]ither [y]ou think all families should be treated equally or you don't. Liz's position is to treat my family as second class citizens." She also said she would not support her sister's candidacy or visit the rest of the Cheney family for Christmas that year.

Mary Cheney married Heather Poe on June 22, 2012, in Washington, D.C.. The family resides in Great Falls, Virginia.

Her wife Heather Poe wrote a Facebook post stating, "Liz has been a guest in our home, has spent time and shared holidays with our children, and when Mary and I got married in 2012 — she didn't hesitate to tell us how happy she was for us. To have her now say she doesn't support our right to marry is offensive to say the least."

In 2010, Mary Cheney became involved in a network of politically active nonprofit organizations. The network is illustrated in this reference: According to tax forms filed with the Internal Revenue Service, Cheney is a member of the BKM Strategies consulting firm. In 2010, Cheney and two other Republican consultants, Barry Bennett and Kara Ahern, started two nonprofits in the office of BKM Strategies: The Alliance for Freedom and the Alliance for America's Future. In the same year, Cheney and Kara Ahern established a Super PAC, Partnership for America's Future, which is not currently active.

Mary Cheney gave birth to her second child, a daughter, on November 18, 2009.

Cheney was vice president of standards and practices at AOL, leaving in 2007.

On January 31, 2007, in a forum by Glamour Magazine at Barnard College of Columbia University, Mary Cheney stated that: "This is a baby... This is a blessing from God. It is not a political statement. It is not a prop to be used in a debate by people on either side of an issue. It is my child." Cheney gave birth to their first child, a son, in May 2007.

Cheney has voiced support for same-sex marriage, and has been credited with encouraging her father's approval of same-sex marriage, which he has publicly supported since leaving the vice presidency. In December 2006, Cheney was reported to be pregnant. Cheney and Poe were said to be "ecstatic" about the baby. "The vice president and Mrs. Cheney are looking forward with eager anticipation to the arrival of their sixth grandchild," spokesperson Lea Anne McBride said on December 5.

Mary Cheney left the public spotlight after the 2004 election until May 4, 2006, when she was interviewed by Diane Sawyer for ABC News' Primetime program to promote her autobiography, Now It's My Turn. In the book, published in 2006, Cheney discusses how she came out to her parents, recounting her father's initial reaction: "You know, look, you're my daughter and I love you and I just want you to be happy." She also discusses her relationship with her partner, Heather Poe.

Gay rights advocates criticized her for waiting until after the 2004 election to voice her disapproval of the Bush administration's positions on gay rights. During another appearance by Cheney on May 19, 2006, on the Late Show with David Letterman, David Letterman brought up some of the issues raised by the gay community. He asked Cheney why she had waited two years after the 2004 election to speak publicly about gay marriage and LGBT rights, and asked whether she had any input with the Bush administration regarding gay issues. Cheney responded that she did not, and that it had not been her job to do so.

In 2004, public attention focused again on Cheney's sexuality, when the Bush administration supported the Federal Marriage Amendment, a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution that would limit marriage to heterosexual couples and ban civil unions and domestic partnership benefits. Cheney did not publicly express her opinion of the amendment at the time. In her 2006 autobiography Now It's My Turn, Cheney stated her opposition to the amendment. However, at the time, she remained silent to support Bush's re-election bid. In August 2004, Dick Cheney reiterated the position he took in the 2000 Presidential campaign: that the issue should be handled by individual state governments. He added, though, that President Bush determined his administration's policies, and his policy supported the Federal Marriage Amendment.

During the 2004 Presidential re-election campaign for the Bush-Cheney administration, during which Cheney served as her father's director of vice presidential operations, the subject of her sexual orientation arose again.

The 2004 presidential election debates included mentions of the same-sex marriage debate and referred, initially indirectly, to Cheney. Both Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry and vice-presidential candidate John Edwards mentioned and praised Cheney's openness with regard to her sexual orientation when questioned regarding gay issues.

She has been one of her father's top campaign aides and closest confidantes. In July 2003, she became the Director of Vice Presidential Operations for the Bush-Cheney 2004 Presidential re-election campaign.

In 2002, Mary Cheney joined the Republican gay-straight alliance Republican Unity Coalition and said that sexual orientation should be "a non-issue" for the Republican Party. Cheney resigned from the RUC's board and in July 2003 became the director of vice presidential operations for the Bush-Cheney 2004 re-election campaign.

In 2000, the Bush-Cheney presidential campaign freely discussed Liz Cheney's marriage and children, but were silent about Mary Cheney's private life. Nevertheless, Cheney's sexual orientation was publicly known, and some considered her presence during the campaign as bolstering, providing the Republican ticket with a "compassionate conservative" image. During an interview with Lynne Cheney, Cokie Roberts brought up the topic of Mary Cheney's having declared herself gay. Lynne Cheney responded by stating that "Mary has never declared such a thing," and criticized Roberts and the media for their interest in the story.

In 1993, she became one of the first employees of the Colorado Rockies baseball team, working in promotions when the team began playing in Denver; thereafter, she was a public relations manager for the Coors Brewing Company, and worked as a gay outreach coordinator, helping to end a national gay boycott of Coors.

Mary Cheney has been with her wife, Heather Poe, since 1992.

Cheney was born in Madison, Wisconsin. She attended McLean High School in McLean, Virginia, graduating in the class of 1987. Following that, she attended Colorado College, her mother and sister's alma mater, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and graduated in 1991. She earned a graduate business degree from the University of Denver in 2002.

Mary Claire Cheney (born March 14, 1969) is the younger daughter of Dick Cheney, the former Vice President of the United States, and his wife, Lynne Cheney. She is politically conservative and is involved with a number of political action groups.