Just when you thought things couldn't get weirder, McCain has come out for marriage equality and against Prop 8 (aka Prop H8 aka Prop Hate). No, not John. No, not Meghan whose been on board with marriage equality for quite some time. Cindy McCain, the wife of the veteran Arizona senator has joined the NO H8 campaign and been photographed by Adam Bouska in the same style as other NO H8 participants, mouth taped over with duct tape with a NO H8 "tattoo." More after the jump...
In the post on Bouska's blog he says he's "often been surprised at some of the different individuals who have approached us showing their support." Cindy McCain certainly qualifies in that regard. While her daughter, Daily Beast blogger Meghan McCain has long counted herself as a supporter of marriage equality even whilst her father campaigned for President supporting Prop 8 in California, Cindy McCain has never publicly given her position on the issue until now.
Says Bouska,
The McCains are one of the most well-known Republican families in recent history, and for Mrs. McCain to have reached out to us to offer her support truly means a lot. Although we had worked with Meghan McCain before and were aware of her own position, we'd never really thought the cause might be something her mother would get behind. We have a huge amount of respect for both of these women for being brave enough to make it known they support equal marriage rights for all Americans.
Aligning yourself with the platform of gay marriage as a Republican still tends to be very stigmatic, but Cindy McCain wanted to participate in the campaign to show people that party doesn't matter - marriage equality isn't a Republican issue any more than it is a Democratic issue. It's about human rights, and everybody being treated equally in the eyes of the law that runs and protects this country.
And this is a great time for Ms. McCain to be joining the campaign with the Federal Prop 8 trial underway in San Francisco and the New Hampshire legislature taking up the repeal amendment sponsored by Republicans in that state. As Cindy and Meghan McCain show, this isn't a partisan matter or rather it shouldn't be. Ted Olson, the former Solicitor General of the United States and Bush lawyer in the Bush v. Gore lawsuit that gave Bush the Presidency, is not only a marriage equality supporter, but he's the lawyer arguing the Federal case in favor of marriage equality in California. Just yesterday in that trial, now in its seventh day, the court heard the testimony of the Republican mayor of San Diego, CA, Jerry Sanders. Sanders had been an opponent of marriage equality feeling that civil union ought to be enough... until he found out his own daughter is a lesbian and in a committed relationship. That made Sanders re-examine his position and do some serious soul searching. At the end of it, what he found is that love matters so much more than hate, equality and social justice are important and came out in favor of marriage equality:
The tide is turning on this issue. We are seeing an increasing number of Republicans support marriage equality including, but certainly not limited to Cindy and Meghan McCain, former Solicitor General Ted Olson, San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, Massachusetts Chief Justice Margaret Marshall, former New Jersey Chief Justice Deborah Poritz, former Massachusetts Governor William Weld, New Jersey State Senator Bill Baroni, and several Republicans in the New York State Assembly including former NY-23 candidate Dede Scozzafava.
These Republicans, some of them quite conservative, hold a position on this issue far more liberal than many Democrats, including President Barack Obama, who has opposed marriage equality on religious grounds declaring "I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. I am not in favor of gay marriage." and when it comes to marriage "God is in the mix."
In today's New York Times, Maureen Dowd spoke with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, whose 2004 order for the city to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples ushered the "Winter of Love" leading to the ground breaking California Supreme Court case In re Marriage Cases which started the push for Proposition 8, about the issue of marriage equality today. Newsom looks back at how his decision to stand on principle made him a pariah in the party. Writes Dowd in the column
Like many pioneers who go first — from the “Ellen” sitcom to the Hillary drama — the mayor who staked his career on giving equal rights to gays may have to settle for paving the way. The lawyers get praised, but he got pilloried?
“Grand understatement,” he said dryly, noting that he still remembers press coverage from before the 2004 same-sex marriage eruption about shooting stars of the Democratic Party.
“There were five of us,” he said, with a teasing nostalgia. “A guy named Obama. I’m like ‘Why is he in here? This is ridiculous. I mean, he’s a state senator. I’m kind of insulted.’ Life was really good, and then it came crashing down. ‘You’re not going to be speaking at the convention. We overbooked.’ And then it becomes the house of cards with the Democrats excusing themselves from visits to this city and being in the same room with me.
Dowd then moved the subject to the President
I asked whether President Obama, who said at a Martin Luther King Jr. commemoration that the civil rights movement was partly about “changing people’s hearts and minds and breaking out of old customs and old habits,” had disappointed him given that the president is a triumph of civil rights himself.
“Oh, I can’t get in trouble here,” Newsom said with a playful wince. “I want him to succeed. But I am very upset by what he’s not done in terms of rights of gays and lesbians. I understand it tactically in a campaign, but at this point I don’t know. There is some belief that he actually doesn’t believe in same-sex marriage. But it’s fundamentally inexcusable for a member of the Democratic Party to stand on the principle that separate is now equal, but only on the basis of sexual orientation. We’ve always fought for the rights of minorities and against the whims of majorities.”
Newsom is right that it is "fundamentally inexcusable" that a Democrat, particularly the leader of the party and President of the United States supports segregation and opposes some people being included in a fundamental human right.
Today, the day after Republicans taught the Democratic Party a lesson in the form of the demoralizing loss of Sen. Edward M. "Teddy" Kennedy's seat in the United States Senate, we are reminded that not all the lessons Republicans have to teach us are negative. Today, Cindy McCain, like several prominent Republicans before her, is teaching us a lesson that it is OK to support marriage equality, that it is a good thing to support loving couples with this important social institution regardless of the sex of the persons. Democrats should learn Ms. McCain's lesson well.
Update [2010-1-20 16:13:41 by craigkg]: Also in marriage equality news, just breaking this afternoon, The Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund (aka Lambda Legal) has filed suit against the government. From Lambda Legal's press release:
Lambda Legal today filed suit against the federal government in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The lawsuit requests an order directing the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to obey prior rulings by Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Chief Judge Alex Kozinski awarding spousal health insurance benefits to Ninth Circuit judicial attorney Karen Golinski.
Kozinski ruled in January 2009, that denying Golinski spousal health insurance for her wife, Amy Cunninghis, was illegal discrimination. He ordered the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts to submit Golinski's health benefits election form to her insurer, Blue Cross/Blue Shield. OPM disagreed with Kozinski's order and told Blue Cross not to comply.
If you haven't been following this case, please see these diaries for more background on the case:
Fed'l judge lobs "bombshell" challenge to White House on GLBT rights
Obama, OPM Defy Court Order
Obama hypocrisy on GLBT equality
h/t to Joe Sudbay over at AMERICAblog Gay