Redefining Republican

In the year since we've started the NOH8 Campaign, we've often been surprised at some of the different individuals who have approached us showing their support. Few, though, have surprised us more than Cindy McCain - the wife of Senator John McCain and mother to vocal marriage equality advocate Meghan McCain. 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 withMeghan 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.
Meghan McCain was asked to be the keynote speaker at next month's National Equality Week at George Washington University for her advocacy. In an odd bit of timing, a student Republican organization has become upset that she'll be giving that speech -- and have publicly voiced their disapproval over the ordeal
(you can read more about it here:
http://gayrights.change.org/blog/view/meghan_mccain_is_redefining_republican).
The group was hoping Meghan would speak under the banner of "Redefining Republican: No Labels, No Boxes, No Stereotypes."

We can't speak for the GWU Republicans, but we at the NOH8 Campaign feel "redefining Republican" is exactly what Cindy and Meghan McCain are doing. They weren't afraid to speak out about what they believe in, and they both made it a priority of theirs to get involved. We can only hope that more politicians will follow the McCains' example.