Mary Cheney speaks.

Amid the pomp and circumstance of Inauguration Day, the vice president's low-profile lesbian daughter tells a friend her plans for the future

Now that Vice President Dick Cheney is the country's highest-ranking official with an openly gay family member, the question looms: What effect, if any, will Mary Cheney's sexual orientation have on the policies of the Bush administration?

Although she has so far declined to address the subject publicly, it is nevertheless on her mind, according to friend and public relations expert Bob Witeck, who met with Cheney just days before she and her girlfriend, Heather Poe, joined the rest of the Cheney family on the inaugural platform on January 20.

"She said she was looking forward to getting back to her own career and her own life," Witeck said of Cheney, who plans to return to Denver to pursue an MBA degree. She is decidedly not looking to get involved in gay and lesbian politics, he added. "She doesn't see herself as a national activist," he said. "The role Mary wants to play is below the radar."

First and foremost, Cheney cherishes her family bonds, particularly her close tie to her father, Witeck said. "She knows her parents' politics aren't likely to change dramatically," he said, describing Mary Cheney's political leanings as "independent." The Cheneys have, however, welcomed Mary and her partner into the family circle. "If anything can bring them along [on gay rights issues], it's Mary's relationship," he said. "Mary would take the opportunity to have discussions with her father and his senior staff--who she is very tight with," he said. Recently she even had a cordial encounter with former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed, she told Witeck.

But it's unlikely that she will make any public statements about the Administration's positions on gay and lesbian issues--partly, said Witeck, because "activism is just not part of her complexion."

Perhaps more important, however, "she wants to preserve the basis of the relationship with her family," Witeck said. "She doesn't want them to see her as an activist rather than a daughter."