By Rudolph Bush
The Chicago Tribune
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — The daughter of conservative firebrand Alan Keyes announced her homosexuality at a gay-rights rally yesterday, publicly revealing for the first time what had been an open secret during her father's failed senatorial campaign.
Although she spoke mainly of the troubles of homeless gay youth, Maya Marcel-Keyes, 19, also 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 told a crowd of several hundred people outside the Maryland State House.
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," it 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.
Marcel-Keyes said yesterday that she was forced last week to move out of Keyes' Chicago apartment because of her sexual orientation and left-wing political activism.
Nevertheless, she said, "I love my parents very much, and they love me."
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