For about a day, Cindy McCain was literally a poster woman against antigay 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 staring 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 antigay “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 antigay 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.
D’Anne Witkowski is a freelance writer and poet. When she’s not taking on the creeps of the world, she reviews rock ’n’ roll shows in Detroit with her twin sister.