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Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen has followed in the footsteps of the likes of the Kardashian sisters and the cast of Glee by getting “NOH8” painted over her face, duct tape placed over her mouth, and a ring flashed for the gay rights campaign. Whiles Ros-Lehtinen isn’t the first member of congress to pose for the photo project, she is the first Republican to do so.
Photographer Adam Bouska started the project in 2009 in reaction to California’s passage of Proposition 8 and has since turned the project into a general protest for LGBT rights and human equality in general.
Celebs of all stripes have posed for the campaign, and Bouska was in DC yesterday snapping photos of politicians, including Ros-Lehtinen, for the #NOH8ontheHill campaign.
Though, it’s really no surprise Ros-Lehtinen is the first Republican officer-holder to do so. She has a transgendered son and has been breaking rank with her party on gay rights issues since 1996. She’s a founding member of the LGBT Equality caucus, was the first Republican to cosponsor a bill that would repeal DOMA, the first Republican on the hill to fully support same-sex marriage, and was one of only two Republicans in congress to sign a brief in favor of same-sex marriage that was sent to the Supreme Court.
Ros-Lehtninen isn’t the first Republican notable to pose for the campaign. John McCain’s wife Cindy and his daughter Meagan posed for the campaign in 2010.
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