Huffington Magazine Issue 2 | Page 25

Enter Q&A HUFFINGTON 06.24.12 a Pulitzer Prize and people would say my father bought it for me. You’ve been criticized for the way you dress and what you weigh. You’ve talked candidly about how soul killing it can be — that the media’s focus on your body even sent you to therapy after the 2008 campaign. Why do you think you’re such a target? I’ve been to the doctor recently and I’m not overweight. I exercise all the time and I eat healthy. I’m just curvy. When I felt compelled to see a therapist was when it was affecting my personal life. I started feeling like maybe there was something wrong with me. Glenn Beck sent me to therapy, to be honest. [Beck graphically pretended to vomit on his radio show at the sight of McCain wearing a strapless dress in a PSA about skin cancer.] Right after President Obama came out in support of gay marriage, you wrote a column where you said he had taken only a half-step. What would constitute a leap for you? I felt that he sent Vice President Biden out like a sacrificial lamb. And then he said, “I personally support a man and man or a woman and a woman getting married.” I think he should get behind some legislation and get Congress to take action. I feel like that’s the problem with the gay rights movement — they accept halves of things. I am a huge supporter of gay rights, but I have had pushback from people in the LGBT community because I’m not a Democrat. When I communicate with Republicans about gay marriage, I always talk about the Constitution and freedom and the Declaration of Independence and what this country was founded on. I find more success with that than talking about love or sex. But I do give it up to the president. I wish my father would come around. McCain has called Obama’s support for gay marriage a “half-step.”