Here is a video of Cindy McCain essentially telling her husband to fuck off — for how his policies and positions directly hurt gay youth and help drive them to suicide. And maybe just to fuck off in general.

In a variation of an It Gets Better video — one that calls out government policies and bystander behavior for contributing to the problem — made by California's No H8 campaign, McCain says the following lines:

"Our political and religious leaders tell LGBT youth that they have no future." "They can't serve our country openly." "Our government treats LGBT people like second class citizens."

This is remarkable because not only is her husband a political leader, preventing the Don't Ask, Don't Tell repeal is explicitly his initiative, right now as we speak. McCain has explicitly stood up for gay rights before, but as far as I can see, she's never been quite this direct about Don't Ask, Don't Tell.


Maybe all this is a long overdue rebellion against the box in which Cindy McCain long found herself trapped. Contrast this strong, principled woman with the 2008 New Yorker profile that Jessica Grose pointed out made her sound exactly like Betty Draper. Ariel Levy wrote that "since childhood, McCain has been expected to embody certain pillars of conventional femininity: beauty, refinement, altruism, and an inclination to encourage the ambitious men in her life...But, if you watch her closely, from time to time you can see Cindy McCain slip out of character."


My favorite example of that was this subtle but loaded moment in the profile:

Staring into the middle distance, as she often does, Cindy McCain proceeded to contradict her husband. "What I tell everyone is, regardless of whether we win or lose, I will continue to do what I do because it's so important to be an example," she said firmly. "To my own children, and also for other kids in the community. Regardless of whether we win or lose." "Stop saying that," John McCain interrupted. "Say ‘when we win,' " Janet Huckabee instructed... Cindy McCain gave a flicker of a smirk. "When we win," she said. And she didn't say anything more.

It's taken a couple of years, but she's saying more. Shame she doesn't seem to have any influence on her pandering homophobe of a husband, who has a direct influence on this policy — but better than nothing. (And since Matt Weiner may never indulge our desires to see Betty's consciousness raised, she's got her fictional counterpart beat.)


Update: And of course, let's not forget John McCain's record of bullying his wife in front of reporters, calling her a "trollop" and a "cunt."

Cindy McCain Does Video Opposing DADT [AmericaBlog]

Related: The Lonesome Trail [New Yorker]