How can a Vice-Presidential candidate with a gay-unfriendly history look like so many gay faves?

Ever since John McCain announced his V-P pick of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, a fair share of the talk of the candidate has focused on her looks. That's not entirely surprising, with so little political history being runner-up for Miss Alaska stands out. However, it's also been hard not to discuss Palin's appearance because she resembles various TV stars.

The first comparison I heard brought up Lynda Carter playing Wonder Woman's secret identity, Diana Prince. I can see where that's coming from, it's not just the glasses and the bun, they both have that 'Shh, can't you tell I'm hiding my looks behind a stylish version of things that are supposed to make me look un-stylish?' dynamic going on.

The next comparison I heard was Tina Fey. Which, I must admit, has me wondering if Lorne Michaels spent the weekend begging Fey to appear on the politically-focused Thursday night edition of Saturday Night Live.

And then I heard someone else make a comparison to Will & Grace scene stealer Megan Mullally.

One more comparison came to mind this morning when I first saw a picture from Palin's college days, one that immediately made me think of Amanda Bearse from the early days of Married... with Children.

Of course, all this is more than a little bit ironic since that's a list full of gay icons, including two queer women, and what from we can gather of Palin's short history, she isn't a friend to the gays. In 1998, she supported amending the State Constitution to ban same-sex marriage and still opposed equal rights for gay couples when the State Supreme Court ruled that the state couldn't deny benefits to same sex couples. In December of 2006, she vetoed a bill that would have tried to stop same-sex couples from receiving state benefits but only because of constitutional concerns. Despite her veto, she made it clear that she still opposed equal benefits for same-sex couples but felt forced by those constitutional concerns to veto the bill. (Don't look for the Associated Press or right wing pundits like Glenn Beck and Debra Saunders to cover the story accurately, though as they overlooked Palin's statements of opposition and used Palin's veto to claim she supports equal benefits for state employees and is therefore a moderate maverick who'll oppose the extreme wing of her party.)

Sigh. I foresee my forehead smacking into my desk quite often in the next couple months. I'm going to be depending on seeing Tina Fey mine this election for all its satire-worth notes.