Ohio GOP Senator Announces Support For Gay Marriage After Son Comes Out To Him
Ohio Senator Rob Portman — who was Romney's debate sparring partner, and at one point thought to be a top candidate for Romney's running mate — has announced that he favors gay marriage.
He has a Columbus Dispatch column titled: "Gay couples also deserve chance to get married."
That isn’t how I’ve always felt. As a congressman, and more recently as a senator, I opposed marriage for same-sex couples. Then something happened that led me to think through my position in a much deeper way.
Two years ago, my son Will, then a college freshman, told my wife, Jane, and me that he is gay. He said he’d known for some time, and that his sexual orientation wasn’t something he chose; it was simply a part of who he is. Jane and I were proud of him for his honesty and courage. We were surprised to learn he is gay but knew he was still the same person he’d always been. The only difference was that now we had a more complete picture of the son we love.
While more and more conservatives are coming around to support gay marriage, Portman is clearly the highest-profile Republican elected official to do so.