Oct 10, 2008  |  By: CHRIS JOHNSON  | COMMENTS     

John McCain’s written interview last week in the Washington Blade has inspired emotional responses from those the Republican presidential nominee cited as influencing his views on gays.

Alice Hoagland, the mother of United Flight 93 passenger Mark Bingham, whom McCain cited in the interview as one of his gay role models, said she was “immensely proud and pleased that [McCain] remembered Mark.”

Bingham was among those killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and was aboard Flight 93 when it crashed near Shanksville, Pa. He is believed to be among the passengers who attempted to retake control of the plane from hijackers, diverting them from their target, the U.S. Capitol Building.

McCain noted during a eulogy for Bingham at his funeral in San Francisco that he had seen “great courage and sacrifice for America’s sake,” but none greater than that of Bingham and other passengers who sought to retake Flight 93.

Hoagland, a Redwood Estates, Calif., resident known as Alice Hoglan at the time of Bingham’s death, said McCain recognized that the Capitol was the hijackers’ intended target and told her at the funeral that “he may very well owe his life to Mark.”

Hoagland, a former flight attendant who now works for the Mark Bingham Foundation, said her son admired McCain because the senator is a “military hero.”

“I was always impressed with how much Mark liked Sen. McCain,” she said. “I think it had a lot to do with his willingness to reach across the aisle and to listen to the opposition and to give considered responses. He’s a remarkably principled man.”

Hoagland said although she tends to vote Democratic, she is supporting McCain in this year’s presidential election because McCain is better than Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama on issues such as the economy and terrorism.

“Sen. McCain is a special case for me because he is a remarkable Republican,” Hoagland said. “He does not reflect the positions that Republicans have come to embrace in the past decade.”

Hoagland, who said she left her job as a flight attendant because she is now afraid to fly, said McCain’s military experience puts him in a better position to fight terrorism.

“I strongly believe that we have not done nearly enough to protect America’s homeland and to make flying safer,” she said. “In my experience, all of the airlines are deficient when it comes to their concerns for security of the people they transport.”

Hoagland said she regrets that McCain has endorsed Proposition 8, a proposed constitutional amendment in California that would ban same-sex marriage in the state.

She said McCain’s support for Proposition 8 tempers her enthusiasm for the candidate.

“I do hope earnestly that Prop 8 is defeated,” Hoagland said. “I think that gay marriage is a concept and an institution whose time has come.”

She said opponents of same-sex marriage should consider “the basic rights that gay people ought to enjoy, right along with their heterosexual brothers and sisters,” and allow gay people to marry the person they choose.

Kolbe, others respond

McCain also named during his interview several gay people he considers friends, such as former U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe (R), with whom he served as part of the Arizona congressional delegation, and Neil Giuliano, former Tempe mayor and current president of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, who supported McCain during his 2000 campaign.

Richard Ferraro, a GLAAD spokesperson, said his organization has a policy against commenting on political campaigns.

But Kolbe, who is now a fellow at the German Marshall Fund think tank, said he was “very flattered by the kind and generous remarks” that McCain made about him.

“It mirrors my own feelings about the senator,” Kolbe said. “Ours has been a relationship of deep affection, trust and respect which resulted during my 22 years of service in Congress in a very close working relationship with him and his staff to benefit Arizona and the nation.”

Kolbe came out as gay in 1996 after being pressured by gay rights advocacy groups to reveal his sexual orientation after he voted for the Defense of Marriage Act.

Shortly afterward, McCain declared his continued support for his fellow lawmaker and said if Kolbe ran for re-election, “he wouldn’t have much difficulty.”

Kolbe said he was struck that McCain mentioned in his interview that he would be willing to consider gay-inclusive employment non-discrimination legislation and would defer to military commanders on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

“In that sense,” Kolbe said, “both he and Senator Obama come from the same basic position.”

Other reaction to McCain’s interview — the first time a Republican nominee has granted a gay press interview ...