BrainStream

Maya on being homeless

It appears that despite "coming out" in the media last month, Maya is in Chicago with no place to stay - trying to sleep on the train and barely avoiding getting raped. Now, she may be wanting to see what it's like since she's helping fight for gay homeless youth but if you know anyone in the Chicago who can give her some space to keep her stuff or to sleep, send her an email.

Maya Keyes, Coming Out

This is a followup to some posts I did in last September around the election. Long story short, Alan Keyes attacked Mary Cheney and said something about "if his daughter were gay he'd tell her she was a selfish hedonist...". What Keyes neglected to say was that his daughter IS gay.

However it seems despite the fact that Maya took time off from school to work HARD for her father's senatorial campaign in Illinois, he has fired her from his organization, asked her to move out of his apartment, and refuses to pay for her education at Brown University.

As a result, Maya has decided to come out publicly about her sexuality, according to this article in the Washington Post.

Personally, I'm disgusted by Keyes. I think of my own son and wonder what I'd do if he chooses to be Anti-Abortion or Pro Death Penalty or anti Gay Marriage. I'd be very disappointed and would continue discussing the topic with him but I'd like to think I'd never stop being his Dad and would continue to be there if he needed me.

I was happy to read in the article that the Point Foundation will pay for Maya to continue at Brown:

On Thursday, the Point Foundation, a San Francisco-based charity that provides scholarships to students "who have been marginalized because of their sexual orientation," decided to pay Maya's expenses so she can begin her studies at Brown. "Many of the students we support have been disowned by their families because they've been honest about who they are," said the foundation's executive director, Vance Lancaster. "Maya's situation is especially poignant because of her father's position, but it's a situation that happens every day to hundreds of kids across the country." This year, Point has received more than 1,200 applications for about 40 scholarships.

Keyes: No Denials

Newsradio 780 in Chicago has gotten some soundbites, (via Chillinois), of Alan Keyes saying he would address questions regarding his daughter's sexuality at an "appropriate venue" making no attempts to deny the situation. The Il GOP Chairwoman also commented, stating she believes the children of candidates should be left out of campaigns.

Based on this reaction, I am 96% sure the story is true - not it just remains to see how it's handled. I would agree with the GOP Party chair were it not for several things:

• The fact that Maya Keyes and Mary Cheney both actively campaign for their fathers and thus should be held to the same standard as campaign staff.
• Alan Keyes' comments regarding Dick Cheney and his lesbian daughter's relationship.
• Keyes' record of virulent anti-homosexuality.

If Maya wasn't working for the campaign but was in Rhode Island at school, then she should be left alone: completely. Some good points have been made at other sites - perhaps Keyes knew Maya was showing her support on the campaign by wearing so much rainbow accessories. Perhaps Maya subtly wanted people to find her site in hopes that the media would get back at her father for how he treated her. We may never know.

Time to sit back and see what happens.

Keyes: Pictures, Proof, Press and Pain?

A picture is worth a thousand words and one of the blogs covering this story has captured that. Unfortunately, I can't remember where I first saw the pictures - or I'd give attribution. Keyes himself has photos of him and his daughter Maya walking alongside each other in a parade in Naperville, Il. There are a few things to note -

• The earrings.
• The various rainbow paraphanalia.
• The marks on her arms.

These items are specifically called out due to observations I have made:

I say to notice the earrings because in all the pictures that show up that allegedly have Maya with her girlfriend Bria - she is wearing those earrings. (Including the one where they are kissing.) Thanks to LeeRoxxor pointing that out in comments at Chillinois.

As far as rainbows go,she has rings, wristbands, a purse and even her Yahoo Profile that she posts to her father's YahooGroups list for his reelection references her hobbies including "Rainbowing up the world."

Finally, the latter observation is quite personally and I daresay out of line. But I noticed it and I'd like to share it. Google currently has a cache from Maya's alleged blog dated March 22, 2004 that includes a meme survey and a post that caught my eye.

First, the survey:

TO PLAY I NEVER: PUT AN (x) IN FRONT OF THE THINGS THAT YOU HAVE
NEVER DONE BEFORE AND A (_) ON THE THINGS THAT YOU HAVE DONE AT 
LEAST ONCE. ADD AN "I NEVER" OF YOUR OWN.

(x) I NEVER HAVE BEEN DRUNK
(x) I NEVER HAVE SMOKED POT
(x) I NEVER HAVE TAKEN ILLEGAL DRUGS
(_) I NEVER HAVE KISSED A MEMBER OF THE OPPOSITE SEX
(_) I NEVER HAVE KISSED A MEMBER OF THE SAME SEX
(x) I NEVER CRASHED A FRIEND'S CAR
(x) I NEVER HAVE BEEN TO JAPAN
(_) I NEVER RODE IN A TAXI
(x) I NEVER HAD ANAL SEX
(x) I NEVER HAD ORAL SEX
(_) I NEVER HAVE BEEN IN LOVE
(x) I NEVER HAD SEX
(x) I NEVER HAVE HAD SEX IN PUBLIC
(x) I NEVER HAVE BEEN DUMPED
(_) I NEVER SHOPLIFTED
(x) I NEVER HAVE BEEN FIRED
(_) I NEVER HAVE BEEN IN A FIST FIGHT
(x) I NEVER HAD A THREESOME
(_) I NEVER SNUCK OUT OF MY PARENTS' 
(x) I NEVER HAVE BEEN TIED UP (SEXUALLY) 
(x) I NEVER HAVE BEEN CAUGHT MASTURBATING
(x) I NEVER PISSED ON MYSELF (ok, well, not since I've been out of diapers anyway!)
(x) I NEVER HAD SEX WITH A MEMBER OF THE SAME SEX
(x) I NEVER HAD SEX WITH A MEMBER OF THE OPPOSITE SEX
(x) I NEVER HAVE BEEN ARRESTED
(x) I NEVER MADE OUT WITH A STRANGER
(x) I NEVER STOLE SOMETHING FROM MY JOB 
(x) I NEVER CELEBRATED NEW YEARS IN TIME SQUARE
(x) I NEVER WENT ON A BLIND DATE 
(_) I NEVER LIED TO A FRIEND
(x) I NEVER CHEATED ON SOMEONE I WAS IN A RELATIONSHIP WITH
(_) I NEVER HAD A CRUSH ON A TEACHER
(_) I NEVER CELEBRATED MARDI GRAS IN NEW ORLEANS
(_) I NEVER HAVE BEEN TO EUROPE
(_) I NEVER SKIPPED SCHOOL
(x) I NEVER SLEPT WITH A CO-WORKER
(x) I NEVER HAVE BEEN FISTED AND/OR HAVE NEVER FISTED ANYONE
(x) I NEVER HAVE THROWN UP IN A BAR
(_) I NEVER HAVE PURPOSELY SET A PART OF MYSELF ON FIRE 
(_) I NEVER HAVE EATEN SUSHI
(x) I NEVER HAVE BEEN SNOWBOARDING
(x) I NEVER HAVE TAKEN A PILATES CLASS
(x) I NEVER HAVE JACKED OFF IN A PUBLIC PLACE
(_) I NEVER TRIED TO KILL SOMEONE ELSE
(_) I NEVER TRIED TO KILL MYSELF
(_) I NEVER VOTED IN ANY SORT OF ELECTION
(x) I NEVER HAD SEX WITH A RELATIVE
(x) I NEVER HAD SEX FOR MONEY
(x) I NEVER HAVE HAD AN ORGASM

The items "Have Purposely set a part of myself on fire" and "Have tried to kill myself" caught my eye, as well as the post following the list:

Tuesday, March 16, 2004

 this house apparently has no decent sharp knives
(they are not vegetarians i wonder how they manage to cut their meat)

and so i am reduced to safety pins and breaking open my razor to remove the blades

::currently playing: badly drawn boy, the shining::
 

Basically what I'm saying is that the marks on her arms in the various pictures, after reading these posts from what is allegedly her blog, made me think "self-mutilation" and self-harm. While many kids today experiment with self-mutilation, fire and such, (heck - I did when I was young) that combined with the suicide rate of gays and lesbians makes me hope that all of this attention won't push Maya over the edge should it prove to be true and that she continue to be dragged out in this building bit of media chaos.

I should note that these are my observations and while I'm posting them, I can't help but think I'm contributing to the situation. When I was with Attrition.org, we often mused that by having a mirror of Web site defacements, we were most likely encouraging script kiddies to do them -a viscious circle. However we also believed that our method of taking the mirrors and immediately notifying Webmasters of defaced sites did a service to those Webmasters and the computer security community at large.

So am I just being a media whore? I'd like to think that my analysis of this story was both nonpartisan and nonbiased. But what if this was Obama's daughter?? Would I have the same interest in exposing her? Is my desire to monitor and record what I believe to be a sociological and media studies event false and misguided? Should I just remove these posts and leave Maya alone due to my guilt regarding the undue invasion of her privacy this is causing? I continue to be torn.

Either way, I continue to hope that Maya's friends and family are incredibly supportive as this story develops and that she comes out of it relatively unscathed...returning back to Brown next year.

Better yet, if her parents continue their refusals to assist her with her college payments than perhaps the very blogging community that brought her story to public light can be the same to work with large groups to create a fund that will pay for her to complete her Brown education.

Things to ponder.

More On the Keyes Family

Today's a new day and thus warrants a new post to cover what's going on with regard to the story of Alan Keyes and his daughter Maya. Last we heard, Keyes was to address the issue at a press conference last night. A gossip article in the NY Daily News reported the issue and had a Keyes spokesperson state that he would answer questions about the story that night as well.

What's most interesting and probably most thorough is an Illinois Leader article about the situation. The tone of the article is....interesting. If you recall, I wondered whether the Republican party would tackle the issue or keep quiet about it since Keyes is their candidate. However it is by far the most thorough article thus far and sounds as if they want answers from the candidate. The article mentions several things of note:

• That it was anticipated that Keyes would break the news last night at his Town Hall Meeting.
• That the rumor had been floating around all weekend on "gay" blogs and made it to Rich Miller's CapitolFax yesterday morning.
• Alas, that Maya postponed attending Brown this year to help with her father's campaign.
• And finally, that Keyes completely dodged the issue by not answering questions as he left the event with his daughter in his car's back seat.

I think the most disappointing revelation is that his daughter took a year off from Brown to work on her father's campaign. The fact that she didn't appear to be working with the campaign is what kept people from using her apparent lesbianism as a political issue. However I recall one of her entries stating that she was taking the year off from Brown but she was afraid that her parents would still see her as a lesbian at the end of the year and not pay for her to go back. In essence, this may mean she didn't really have a choice.

The fact that the Keyes campaign said the candidate would address questions about the issue at last night's town hall meeting only to have him brush them off with no indication of when he would discuss the situation is a bit frustrating. But perhaps they needed just a bit more time to strategize.

Finally, it looks like Maya has restored a bit more of her blog after the sudden paranoid "restriction" of all posts and then the strange appearance of a strongly anti-abortion message...which appears to be gone.All the appears now is some creative writing she's done including poetry and fiction - at least on the front page. I have yet to dig deeper.

I'm sure we'll hear from the Keyes campaign sometime today.

Update: 12:57pm ET - UPI has ran with the story and it's appearing in the Washington Times. Strange - they cheaped out on the info, however. It just mentions Politics1.com - who did a simple blurb linking to the actual sites that did all the work.

Update: 11:28am ET - 365gay.com, the site that first quoted Keyes calling Mary Cheney a "selfish hedonist" for her lifestyle has reported on the situation - it looks like the report is mostly culled from the Illinois Leader aricle.

Keyes and Sexuality in the Illinois Senatorial Race

So there's a story that has been broken by the blogosphere about Alan Keyes, (running against Barak Obama for an Illinois Senator seat), and his daughter, Maya. It seems that a smart blogger has put two and two together and discovered Maya Keyes' weblog. Various other sites have gone a step further and found sites of her purported girlfriend including one of the two of them kissing.

I'm torn.

On the one hand, I absolutely abhor the thought of this story being splashed all over the tabloids at the expense of Maya - she's only 19 and isn't really campaigning for her father; just making occasional public appearances with her family. She's not a public figure and has the right to her privacy & her own life.

On the other hand, her father has made some strong statements over the years that are incredibly anti-gay and homophobic including one reported in the Chicago Tribune about Dick Cheney's daughter, Mary, that would look incredibly hypocritical should this recent revelation prove to be true.

Two hosts with Sirius OutQ spoke with Keyes for four minutes Monday night in a nearby hallway. Their conversation centered on Keyes' opposition to gay marriage. Keyes said family is defined by having children.

"If we embrace homosexuality as a proper basis for marriage, we are saying that it's possible to have a marriage state that in principle excludes procreation and is based simply on the premise of selfish hedonism," Keyes told hosts Michelangelo Signorile and Corey Johnson.

...

"I have said that if you are actively engaging in homosexual relations, those relations are about selfish hedonism," Keyes said. "If my daughter were a lesbian, I'd look at her and say, `That is a relationship that is based on selfish hedonism.' I would also tell my daughter that it's a sin, and she needs to pray to the Lord God to help her to deal with that sin."

Who knows, based on some of the contents in the blog alleged to be Maya's, maybe he's already told her that.

Third, my parents and I were seriously not getting along and so we needed some time off from each other; the idea was that after a year of being a wonderful good helping-the-poor type person they would once again like me and therefore be willing to pay for my college I'm not so sure that part of it will work; despite the fact that I'm all about working for global justice THEY don't care about that, THEY only care that I am an evil dyke.

And even if I am a charitable dyke I am still a dyke who KISSES GIRLS and especially with the gay marriage thing going on now that's at the front of their minds. So I think I might get back to find out they still don't like me and I won't have a college to go to.

But sociologically it's another fascinating look at the blogosphere breaking a story before journalists and political operatives even catch wind of it.

Think about it, however - who would want to run with the story? The Republican party, (despite becoming more and more conservative since Dubya's election), made a considerable effort to place Alan Keyes as the Republican candidate to replace Ryan in the race against Barak Obama for U.S. Senator. I don't think they'd risk dissension in the ranks and send the Religious Right against Maya & her father to risk losing that Senate seat. I'd be interested to see if they keep their attack dogs muzzled.

And look how far Obama is in the polls.... AP reports a 51 point lead as of today. There is no reason for him to touch this with a ten-foot poll and even if he was behind - I don't think he'd mention it. One of the liberal blog sites that picked this up, Daily Kos, has been just as torn on bringing the issue up - the Democratic party has nothing to gain by making this into an issue and Maya isn't actively participating in her father's campaign so there's no basis for calling her a hypocrite.

I put my money on the media outing her. Someone, somewhere will write the story either to boost ratings or simply to make sure all the facts are out there for the people to factor the information into their selection on voting day. It remains to be seen whether this comes out at all.

Whatever the outcome - it will no doubt become a public story and for that, I apologize Maya. You are young and have your life ahead of you - and to be used for political gain whether positive or negative, is not fair. I hope your friends and other members of your family support you through this ordeal and that you don't let it effect who you are and how you see yourself.

Update: (6:55pm ET) When I wrote this piece, there was only one link in Google when I did a GIS search for "Maya Keyes". It's now the first of 57 entries in Google In addition to Daily Kos discussion, there is also a few aggregators that picked up said discussion, a link to Maya's alleged blog, and an interesting post from a Columbia Law student's blog that looks at the ethics behind "exposing" Ms. Keyes blog.

Update: 7:54pm ET - It seems that Maya updated her Web site. Very curious:

<Begin Web Site Quote>

• In America today, more black children are aborted than are born.
• A black baby is now more than three times as likely to be
  murdered in the womb than a white bab +y.
• Since 1973, abortion has reduced the black population by over 25 percent.
• Twice as many African-Americans have died from abortion than have died from
  AIDS, accidents, violent crimes, can +cer, and heart disease - combined.
• Every three days, more African-Americans are killed by abortion than
  have been killed by the Ku Klux Klan in its + entire history.
• Planned Parenthood operates the nation's largest chain of abortion clinics and
  almost 80 percent of its faciliti +es are located in minority neighborhoods.
• About 13 percent of American women are black, but they
  submit to over 35 percent of the abortions.

Not to mention that Margaret Sanger (the founder of Planned Parenthood) was an avowed racist who wanted to sterilize +the "unfit," and Sanger's organization's members warned about the danger posed to the white population by the "black" and "yellow" + peril, and wanted to "purify" America's "breeding stock."

<End Web Site Quote>

Strange.....doesn't seem like her words. I wonder if someone did, in fact, hack her site. Or if she attempted to throw people off from believing she was Maya by going to the extreme. Quite possibly, she tried to "get in line" with her father's views once the media storm happened. I wonder if anyone actually "captured" Maya's site before she restricted viewership. Chillinois got quotes but sometimes actual screen captures or HTML downloads are better.

I found the Web site of her alleged girlfriend - Bria - the girl in all the pictures we've come cross and she is a liberal, pro-choice anarchist. While Maya may be Pro-Life, such a virulent attack on Pro Choice folk on her site seems....a bit convenient.

Chillinois also reports that the "issue" will be addressed by Mr. Keyes at a South Suburban Event tonight. This meeting is probably the Southside Town Hall Meeting scheduled for 7pm CST at Israel Methodist Church in Cottage Grove, IL.

Update: 9:33pm ET - *sigh* I'll likely go to hell by the time this story is said and done with. This is my last update for the night. Kos reported WTTW has mentioned the story in their evening news stating that it will be brought up at a press conference with Keyes.