AKA William

“I think it’s one of the stupidest things I’ve ever seen.” Iowa State Senator Matt McCoy doesn’t mince words when it comes to Republican legislators’ efforts to repeal his state’s gay marriage law. “I think it’s a loser. I think it’s a political loser.”  But, then again, McCoy doesn’t seem to mince words about anything – period. Here he spoke candidly about coming out while in office, drinking to dull the pain, the political pitfalls of religion and how Democrats can stay ahead amid Iowa’s changing political tide.

Forty-three year old McCoy has come a long way since he first entered office as a state Representative in 1993. Originally motivated by his love for conservation, McCoy entered office with a wife and lofty goals. After two terms, McCoy crossed over to the Senate and his wife soon bore him a son. His seemingly perfect life soon shattered, however, as McCoy came to grips with his alcoholism and, eventually, his homosexuality. “I call it my ‘Awakening period,’” said McCoy last week, speaking in a steady, soothing Middle American cadence. “I got into my 30s and decided that I needed to get honest with the fact that I had a substance abuse problem, when I did, one of the startling revelations that came out of my life was the fact that in order to recover, I needed to deal with the fact that I had an issue related to my sexual orientation.” His sexuality, he says, “became the front and center elephant in the living room.” Soon, after admitting that he drank to “tolerate being somebody I wasn’t,” McCoy would tell his wife, his peers and his constituents.  Queer as it may seem, McCoy insists that coming out, though difficult, paled in comparison with his fight for sobriety, “I was more in the closet about my recovery than I was about coming out. But a lot of turmoil was going on in my life at the time all this was occurring, and I was definitely driving it all.”

Many of McCoy’s colleagues suggested he quit. He refused. “I pointed out that you don’t get into politics because you’re a quitter. You get in because you believe you can make a difference.” He soon sat down with then-Governor Tom Vilsack and plotted a reelection course. “He was extremely supportive, and shared with me that he believed there was life after coming out, and that, politically, he thought it would be difficult, but he thought I could withstand reelection.” McCoy’s private life and substance abuse issues were soon splashed across the papers. And wouldn’t have had it any other way. “When you run for office and you sell yourself to the voters as an elected official, they’re buying the whole package,” says McCoy. They had “been electing what they considered a traditional, heterosexual, married family guy, and they needed to know who I really was. I don’t regret getting honest with my constituents. It was the hardest thing I ever did, but it was extremely gratifying when they reelected me.” And reelect him they did: he won with 56% of the vote in 2002, and then with a whopping 64% in 2006. His booming popularity and advocacy, however, would also bring McCoy death threats and make him a prime target for the religious right.

Like many of his colleagues in Iowa, McCoy lists his church on his official Senate page. “That’s pretty standard operating procedure in Iowa,” he explains, although clearly has a cautious view of religion’s oversized role in electoral politics. “I know that when I used to be a Catholic, a lot of folks from both the right and the left would look at that with a jaundiced eye.” Now that he goes to a non-denominational church, he says, “It’s the same groups that comment that ‘gee, he was Catholic and he switched.’ I just try to stay completely out of religion.” But that’s not always the case. Last year, after Iowa’s Supreme Court had already legalized marriage, conservative radio host Steve Deace took aim at McCoy, whom he claimed lived in a “statement of ignorance” by describing himself as Christian and gay. The two, Deace maintains, are incompatible, and McCoy was in the wrong for using his faith to argue for same-sex marriage.

McCoy didn’t take the attack lying down, and released a statement blasting Deace, “Steve Deace chooses to use his radio platform… to spread hate and lies on behalf of his version of Christianity. I feel that he crossed the line of decency by attacking me and my family in such an outrageous manner.” McCoy may have lost his cool back then, but when the topic comes up, he remains calm and collected, “Whatever speculation occurs out there about my religious views or religious beliefs, they’re just self-guided by constituents or by interest groups.” McCoy would rather focus his energies on this fall’s election.

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