Conservative's daughter reveals homosexuality at rally.

Byline: Rudolph Bush

ANNAPOLIS, Md. _ The daughter of conservative firebrand Alan Keyes announced her homosexuality at a gay rights rally here Monday, publicly revealing for the first time what had been an open secret during her father's failed senatorial campaign.

Maya Marcel-Keyes, 19, spoke only obliquely of her sexual orientation in a brief speech before a crowd of several hundred people outside the Maryland State House.

Though she spoke mainly of the troubles of homeless gay youth, Marcel-Keyes addressed the difficulties she faced growing up as the daughter of one of the country's most outspoken opponents of homosexual lifestyles and gay marriage.

"Liberal queer plus conservative Republican just don't mesh too well," she said.

Her father, who was on the West Coast giving speeches this week, issued only a terse statement about his daughter's coming out.

"My daughter is an adult, and she is responsible for her own actions," the statement read. "What she chooses to do has nothing to do with my work or political activities."

Keyes drew national attention during the Republican National Convention last year when he called homosexuality an act of "sexual hedonism." Asked later if Vice President Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter, Mary, is a selfish hedonist, Keyes answered that she is.

A day after that interview, Keyes defended his statements, saying he would feel the same about his own daughter, although he wasn't questioned about her at the time.

"If my own daughter were a homosexual or a lesbian, I would love my daughter, but I would tell my daughter that she was in sin," he said.

Marcel-Keyes said Monday that her father's private stance toward her homosexuality has been consistent with his public statements on the subject.

Last week, she was forced to move out of Keyes' Chicago apartment because of her sexual orientation and left-wing political activism.

Despite being "finally cut off," as she wrote in her Weblog, Marcel-Keyes said she had received an outpouring of support. The Point Foundation has even offered her a scholarship to attend Brown University in the fall, she said.

The gay rights advocacy group Equality Maryland invited Marcel-Keyes to speak at the rally in November, and she mulled the decision for a month before deciding to talk publicly about her sexuality.

Her orientation was the subject of constant rumors and speculation during her father's campaign when reporters and Internet Weblogs discovered her online diary, which only thinly disguised her identity.

Nevertheless, when questioned about her relationship with her parents Monday, she spoke fondly of them.

"I love my parents very much, and they love me," she said.

___

(c) 2005, Chicago Tribune.

Visit the Chicago Tribune on the Internet at http://www.chicagotribune.com/

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.

_____

ARCHIVE PHOTOS on KRT Direct (from KRT Photo Service, 202-383-6099): Alan Keyes

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.