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Cheney speaks supportively of homosexual relationships THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Vice President Dick Cheney speaks at a town hall meeting in Davenport, Iowa. Cheney said that despite his position on gay marriage, “the president makes policy for the administration.” ■ CHENEY Continued from page 1 allowing the people to be involved,” Cheney said. “The courts were making the judgment for the entire country.” Last month, Lynne Cheney said states should have the final say over the legal status of personal relationships, a comment that came just days before the Senate failed to back the ban. Cheney said the amendment did not have the votes to pass, but he also said the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which President Clinton signed into laW in 1996, may be enough: “Most states have addressed this and there is on the books the federal statute, the Defense of Marriage Act, passed in 1996, and to date, it has not been successfully challenged in the courts and may be sufficient to resolve the issue,” the vice president said. The Cheneys have two daughters, I. both of whom are working on the campaign. Mary Cheney is director of vice presidential operations for the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign. She held a public role as her father’s assistant in the 2000 campaign and helped the GOP recruit gay voters during the 2002 midterm elections. During the 2000 campaign, vice presidential candidate Dick Cheney took the position that states should decide legal issues about personal relationships and that people should be free to enter relationships of their choosing. Addressing Bush’s position on the amendment, Cheney said, “at this point, save my own preference, as I have stated, but the president makes policy for the administration. He’s made it clear that he does, in fact, support a constitutional amendment on this issue.” Sens. John Kerry of Massachusetts and John Edwards of .North Carolina, oppose the amendment. The Democratic candidates also oppose gay The president “has made it clear that he does... support a constitutional amendement on this issue.” DICK CHENEY VICE PRESIDENT marriage, but defend a gay couple’s rights to the same legal protections as those conferred in marriage. Steven Fisher, spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, a gay and lesbian advocacy group, said Cheney’s remarks show a stark difference with Bush’s efforts “to put discrimination in the Constitution.” “President Bush is feeling the heat. The administration has been using gay Americans to drive a wedge into the electorate. There are millions of American families who have gay family members and friends, who are offended by the president’s use of discrimination,” Fisher said. ■ SCHOLAR Continued from page 2 international studies major,” she said. “It would give me some real world experience.” More than 40 percent of the national awards won by USC students in the last decade have been for research or study abroad, and Ken Perkins, one of the faculty advisors for Fulbright applicants and a former Fulbright recipient himself, emphasized the value of international study to his audience on Monday. “I wish every student could find some time to study abroad,” he said. He added that students should not necessarily confine themselves to English speaking or European countries. “Think a little outside the box,” Perkins said, encouraging students to request grants in “exotic” locales such as Senegal, Malaysia or Cote D’Ivoire in their Fulbright applications. Trey Howell, a graduate student in law and business said that the Fulbright workshop was his first visit to one of the programs, and that he’s glad the resource is available. “I’m hoping to go study in Belgium,” in European Union law, he said. Rhodes and Marshall scholarship workshops will be held today at 4 p.m. in Harper College, and the Fellowships and Scholar Programs office has scheduled drop-in hours four days a week. “Not all colleges have offices like this,” Beskid said. “We’re really a front-runner.” Comments on this story? E-mail gatnecocknews@gum.sc.edu Birth control pill side effect blamed in UT student’s death ■ The pill may be linked to rare lung complication By Kyung-rak Son DAILY TEXAN (U. TEXAS-AUSTIN) (U-WIRE) AUSTIN, Texas — One week ago,. a 19-year-old University of Texas student was buried after she suffered from a lung complication experts say could be a rare side effect of birth control pill use. The cause of her death has not been confirmed. On Aug. 9 in Fredericksburg, a small town northwest of Austin, Nicole Beth Bryla, a UT sophomore interested in the field of retail merchandising, was jogging down Main Street and suddenly collapsed. Omar Rivas recognized her from high school and immediately called an ambulance, which rushed her to the Hill Country Memorial Hospital, where she was airlifted the „ next morning to Methodist Hospital in San Antonio. She died Aug. 12. Bryla died from pulmonary embolism, a condition caused by blood clots, made up of fat or tumor cells, forming in the legs and traveling up to the lungs until they hit arteries small enough to be blocked, said Ben Brieger, an emergency * room physician at Brackenridge-Hospital. Depending on where they stop, he said, the results could be fatal, causing sudden death. Symptoms for this condition are very mild, he said, even nonexistent in many cases, yet the blockage of the lungs can happen very fast. “About 10 percent die within the first hour,” orieger said. Although the actual cause for Nicole’s pulmonary embolism was not identified after numerous tests, experts say that this might be a rare result caused by the birth-control pills that she was taking. “We prescribe thousands and thousands of birth-control pills,” said Theresa Spalding, a doctor at the University Health Center. “We hear one or two of these cases a year, but there is a link.” Researchers at the Women’s Health Initiative, a 15-year research program to address the most common causes of death, disability and poor quality of life in postmenopausal women, found that estrogen and progestin, hormones commonly used in birth control pills, could be linked to serious cardiovascular side effects, according to the WHI Web site. This finding led the Food and Drug Administration to ask manufacturers of estrogen containing products to revise the label to explain the increased risk, according to the FDA Web site. Dr. Reyes, an emergency room physician at st. L»avia s Hospital, said age and genetic makeup play important roles. “Some people are prone to develop this,” he said. “But it’s not all about genetics. A mom with this condition doesn’t mean a daughter will have the same condition.” Nicole’s funeral was held Aug. 17 at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Fredericksburg. Her mother, Susan Bryla, said she donated her cornea, bones and veins. “She enjoyed many things, like tennis and running,” said Susan. “She will be dearly missed.” "" "HI “We prescribe thousands and thousands of birth control pills. We hear one or two of these cases a year, but there is a link.” THERESA SPALDING DOCTOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS UNIVERSITY HEALTH CENTER Buy your textbooks on eBay ■ ■ " and save up to the list price. iklT pW§y.ecliw' *°r l"^# ^ yll# play ^ y«'! 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