In the November 2008 election, 579,064 Orange County voters wanted John McCain to be president of the United States right now (versus 549,558 for Barack Obama). By extension, Cindy McCain was 50.2 percent of the electorate's choice for first lady (versus 47.6 percent for Michelle Obama). In that same election, 659,037 Orange Countains voted for Prop 8, which eliminated same-sex couples' right to marry in California. That was a whopping 57.7 percent of OC voters.
The Republican ticket topper backed Prop 8, of course. And immediately following the dour California GOP campaign party in an Irvine Hyatt ballroom the evening of Nov. 4, 2008, the same room hosted the boisterous California Yes on 8 party.
So, you can imagine the conniptions suffered by local Republicans catching the Vaseline-lensed photo of Mrs. McCain above.
]
Photographer Adam Bouska and his partner Jeff Parshley started the NOH8 Campaign in February 2009 in direct response to Prop 8's passage. They say they've been surprised by who has shown support for the campaign in its first year.
“Few,
though, have surprised us more than Cindy McCain–the wife of Senator John McCain and mother to vocal marriage
equality advocate Meghan McCain,” they write on noh8campaign.com. “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,” they continue. “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.”
John McCain's office has issued a
statement saying the Arizona senator respects the views of members of
his family but remains opposed to gay marriage. He says he still believes “marriage is only defined as between one man and one woman.”
Makes you wonder how often he used that duct tape on Cindy when he was lapping up campaign cash from fellow Republicans and Prop 8 supporters in Orange County.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.