Republican Senator turns pro-gay now that his son is gay

[Martinus]

Rob Portman reverses stance on gay marriage, says son is gay

WASHINGTON — Sen. Rob Portman has renounced his opposition to gay marriage, telling reporters from Ohio newspapers yesterday that he changed his position after his son Will told him and his wife, Jane, that he is gay.

Portman, an Ohio Republican, made the stunning revelation just a week before the U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments on a 1996 federal law asserting that gay marriage is not legal, a measure that Portman co-sponsored as a member of the U.S. House.

But like former President Bill Clinton, who signed the law, Portman now wants the high court to invalidate the law's declaration that marriage is between a man and a woman. Instead, Portman said he would prefer that it be left to the states to decide the definition of marriage.

In an interview in his Senate office, Portman acknowledged that his support for same-sex marriage is a "change in my position that I have had in Congress and also here in the Senate the last couple of years." But he said that change "came about through a process" after Will, now a junior at Yale University, told his parents in February 2011 that he is gay.

"It allowed me to think about this issue from a new perspective and that's as a dad who loves his son a lot and wants him to have the same opportunities that his brother and sister have," Portman said.

Portman said he and Jane were both surprised to learn that their son is gay, but he said they were "very supportive of him," adding that they wanted Will to "know we were 100 percent supportive and we love him. He's an amazing young man."

"If anything, I'm even more proud of the way he has handled the whole situation."

Portman had to deal with his position on the issue just two months later, when a group of students at the University of Michigan Law School protested his selection as a graduation speaker because of what they called his "openly hostile" position on gay rights. According to local media reports, more than 100 students walked out of the ceremony because they disagreed with his opposition to gay marriage.

Portman also informed Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney about Will when Portman was being interviewed last year as a potential vice-presidential nominee.

Yesterday, Portman told reporters that he had not considered how it will affect him politically.

While Portman has been a staunch conservative on social issues, including abortion and gun issues, he has been more inclined to focus on economic and budget issues publicly, including during his 2010 campaign against Democrat Lee Fisher.

In addition to his 1996 vote in favor of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, Portman voted in 1999 against allowing gay couples in Washington, D.C., to adopt children.

Portman's staff carefully choreographed yesterday's announcement. They invited reporters from four newspapers — The Dispatch, the Dayton Daily News, The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and the Cincinnati Enquirer.

In addition, Portman wrote an opinion piece for today's Dispatch (Page A17) explaining his shift in same-sex marriage. And he agreed to an interview with CNN that is scheduled to be aired this morning.

Portman said Will encouraged him to make the story public. The Portmans have three children: Jed, 22, Will, 21, and Sally, 18.

Portman's announcement could have a major impact on the nationwide debate on gay marriage. Polls generally show that a majority of Americans now support gay marriage, a number that has sharply increased during the past decade.

In particular, the issue is causing fissures among Republicans who as recently as 2004 were virtually unanimous in their opposition to gay marriage.

Portman said he spoke with the pastor of his church in Cincinnati and opponents of gay marriage about his change in position. In addition, last weekend, he spoke with former Vice President Dick Cheney, whose daughter Mary is gay.

"His advice was: 'Do the right thing. Follow your heart,'" Portman said.

In Ohio, other Republicans have also wrangled with their own personal connection to gay issues. Former Attorney General Jim Petro lost the 2006 GOP primary for governor to J. Kenneth Blackwell in part because Blackwell accused him of being soft on gay-marriage issues. Nonetheless, Petro ran ads promoting his opposition to gay marriage during that campaign.

Petro, however, opposed a successful 2004 ballot issue to define marriage in the Ohio Constitution as being between a man and a woman. At the time, he said he supported legal benefits for same-sex couples.

Six years later, Petro's daughter married a woman in Massachusetts. Petro told The Dispatch last year that he had rethought his opposition to gay marriage, saying such unions are "reasonable" and " something that is good."

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/03/15/portman-reverses-stance-on-gay-marriage-says-son-is-gay.html

Not entirely sure how I feel about people like this.

On one hand, it's good for people to change for the better, to admit mistakes etc. and it is often the personal aspect of it that changes people's minds.

On the other, it makes you kind of a shithead both from the pro-gay perspective ("so you couldn't think about how lack of equality hurts people until it was your own kid?") and from the anti-gay perspective ("so you used to think homosexuality is wrong but now that your son is gay you are fine with it? What if your son was a murderer?").

What do you think?

[Liep]

Now you just need to turn all the other senator sons gay. Revolution from above.

[Martinus]

Now you just need to turn all the other senator sons gay. Revolution from above.

Or below.

[Caliga]

Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, Mart.

[CountDeMoney]

Amazing how that happens.

[Viking]

Is this why Romney didn't pick Portman as a running mate?

[CountDeMoney]

No.

[garbon]

Family photo:

[Malthus]

I'm reminded of the funeral scene in that '80s movie Heathers: "I love my dead gay son!"

[derspiess]

He is SO gonna get primaried



On the other hand, nobody will remember this in 2016

[Ed Anger]

meanwhile, senator Sherrod Brown is still an annoying fucktard.

[Admiral Yi]

There was some political ad yesterday on CNN.  Married ex-Marine talking about his homo brother, and how he deserves the right to get married, and how good Republicans should support that.  Didn't catch who paid for it.

"He was the best man at my wedding, and I hope to be the best man at his."  Good line.

[Berkut]

He is SO gonna get primaried

Do you really think that if he does get primaried, that will be good for the Republican Party?

[Neil]

Boo.  Gays are bad, and letting them get married won't make them better.  Forcing them to act like humans will make them better.

[garbon]

Boo.  Gays are bad, and letting them get married won't make them better.  Forcing them to act like humans will make them better.

Letting them take on roles like marriage and child-rearing could help there. Otherwise, we just stick to perpetual adolescence and bachelorhood.