Ten weeks ago we already knew that McCain didn't support anything that the LGBT community needs in terms of policy. But what about the frivolous, the gratuitous, the petty, and the symbolic?

Well, that's apparently what he's been focusing on in these past ten weeks:

• He has said that he'd bend on pretty much every issue when it comes to picking a running mate, but the VP has to be a homophobe. It really homophobic because it doesn't help attract pro-life fundies but still insults us.
• He told the NY Times that he "doesn't believe" in gay adoption. When asked to clarify, his campaign further muddled the issue by stating that he only preferred that kids have heterosexual parents. Then, in an interview in which he appeared confused by the question, he told ABC that he supports "family values" and that gay adoption isn't why he's running for president.

  This was some pretty efficient homophobia, because he picked an issue he didn't have to comment on or that is really on people's radar (adoption is state-level), echoed far-right rhetoric, and implied that two gay parents are equal to one straight one, all in one gaffe. The confusion throughout it added a certain je ne sais quoi to the homophobia.



• McCain condemned those activist judges in California for extending the right to marry to same-sex couples, saying that marriage is "between a man and a woman." He specifically picked rhetoric (like "activist judges") that makes us wonder if he'd support a Federal Marriage Amendment if presented with one.


• He refused to release a statement for Pride Month. I know, I shouldn't expect so much, but Obama did one anyway.


• McCain staffers told the press that he wouldn't work to eliminate homophobia from the GOP platform.


• Obama has promised to help lift the HIV travel ban if he becomes president, but McCain refused to even answer the question on that topic.


• McCain said:

  "This is a typically superfluous response from Barack Obama. Like most celebrities, he reacts to fair criticism with a mix of fussiness and hysteria," says McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds, before trying to link the attack back to offshore drilling.

  That's an abstract way of calling Obama a faggot, but it gets at the same point: Obama isn't manly enough to be president.

Of all those incidents up there, the only one that the LCR has tried to explain was the one about adoption:

"We are pleased that Senator McCain clarified the remarks and we thank the Senator for once again re-iterating his belief that issues concerning marriage and family laws should be left up to the states - not the federal government. The fundamental principle of federalism has made our party and our country strong - and those in our party who would seek to sacrifice this core value in order to push an extreme anti-gay agenda do damage to our party and our country."

Well, that's one way to spin what McCain said.

It's been 10 weeks, and that's not that much education from the LCR. I've learned a lot about what McCain thinks about the gays, though, but I don't think that's the kind of education LCR intended.