For
about a day Cindy McCain was literally a poster woman against anti-gay
bullying. She appears, along with a bunch of celebrities including Gene
Simmons, Dr. Drew, Slash, – and a lot of young and impossibly beautiful folks I
have personally never heard of because I am too old – in a PSA for the NOH8
Campaign responding to the recent and much publicized string of gay kids
committing suicide.
Speaking
earnestly while starring into the camera with her icy blue eyes, McCain says,
"Our political and religious leaders tell LGBT youth that they have no future.
They
can't serve our country openly."
After
cycling through a few more celebrities who share anti-gay "fun facts" (Dave
Navarro: "They can’t get married." Steph Jones: "They can’t donate blood."
Antonio Cromartie: "They’re not even allowed to adopt in certain states." Tom
"Dancing With the Stars" Bergeron says, "What's worse, these laws that
legislate discrimination teach bullies that what they're doing is acceptable."
This is
followed by McCain saying, "Our government treats the LGBT community like
second class citizens, why shouldn't they?"
These
are some mighty feisty words coming from the wife of John "Filibuster to keep
Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Alive" McCain. For Cindy to be part of the NOH8 Campaign
seemed like a pretty big deal.
NOH8
started as a response to the anti-gay Prop 8 in California. It featured celebs,
including Cindy and Meghan McCain with duct tape over their mouths and the NOH8
logo painted on their faces like they’d just escaped from the world’s most
terrifying county fair.
Well, it
looks like Cindy should’ve kept her duct tape on.
Right
after the PSA went live McCain took to Twitter and announced, "I fully support
the NOH8 campaign and all it stands for and am proud to be a part of it."
Aww,
isn’t that sweet? Well, not really. Because here’s the kicker: "But I stand by
my husband’s stance on DADT."
Wait,
what? You just got done telling us in a PSA that the government treats gays
like second class citizens and how that treatment trickles down into the
nation’s collective psyche and how that’s basically waving a red cape in front
of gay kids (in this analogy, the bullies are bulls. Get it?). And you very
specifically, with your own mouth and voice and weirdly tight face, named the
ban on gays in the military as one of these biggest offenders.
John
Aravosis of America Blog was particularly incensed as he’d just praised Cindy
McCain for the ad the day before. "Did she lie today or lie yesterday? Either
way, she's a liar, and she should be removed from the NOH8 video because, as of
right now, Cindy McCain is a hater," he wrote.
"Not to mention, great message she just sent to gay youth. If someone pressures you, cave and support
hate."
My guess
is that Grandpa McCain didn’t like it. Hence the Tweet indicating that Cindy
is, at best, disingenuous and at worst totally clueless. Maybe she actually
believes that the Cindy in the PSA and the Cindy with the Twitter account would
make really good friends.
Truth be
told, they can’t. They’d fight all the time. In fact, I suspect Twitter Cindy
would eventually kick PSA Cindy’s ass. You know, to show her who’s boss.