Is the moniker of homophobe for John
McCain starting to stick?
The Arizona senator twice led
Republican colleagues to successfully block repeal of “Don't Ask,
Don't Tell,” the 17-year-old law that bans gay and bisexual troops
from serving openly. But
his coalition crumbled over the weekend when eight GOP members
defected to join all but one Democrat, West Virginia Senator Joe
Manchin, in voting for an end to the law.
A fiery McCain fought on even as he
sensed defeat, exclaiming that ending the law would endanger “the
survival of our young men and women in the military” and chiding
senators in favor of repeal for “acting in direct repudiation of
the message of the American people.”
“Today is a very sad day,” McCain
added before senators voted.
“Fuck John McCain,” sex advice
columnist San Savage said in
an interview with NEWSWEEK that took place before the weekend's vote,
“put that in NEWSWEEK.”
“Yeah, I say it too, to the second
power,” Jane Lynch, who plays sharp-tongued coach Sue Sylvester on
the Fox musical-comedy Glee, added.
The outspoken pair share a long history
of supporting gay rights. Lynch, one
of the few Hollywood celebrities in a gay marriage, is a board
member of the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center. Savage founded
the It Gets Better Project, a collection of videos that urges
troubled gay teens to hang in there, because life gets better.
Things escalated for McCain on Tuesday,
when
he was named Homophobe of the Year by readers of gay male
entertainment website AfterElton.com.