Sen. Portman comes out of the closet on gay marriage

AP Photo

The only national political news big enough to overcome today’s CPAC vacuum was an op-ed written by Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman, in which he announced an evolution in his position on marriage equality. His decision was lauded as “courageous” by David Axelrod. He credited his son coming out as gay to him and his wife in 2011 with his “new perspective” on the issue, and said he then thought through his position “in a much deeper way.” Portman’s comments point directly to the vicious and unsettling selfishness that animates the conservative movement – quick to judge those who are “different,” and slow to understand.

If only more Republicans had children who couldn’t get access to affordable health care, or birth control, or a great college education.

Yesterday I attended a legislative briefing conducted by Citizens for Traditional Values, and was surprised to hear scoffs from the audience when Justice Brian Zahra talked about the clear and present danger of empathetic judges.

In the eyes of conservatives (even the mostly religious ones who were in attendance yesterday), empathy is apparently the worst offense one can commit. It opens one’s values system up to possibly allowing support for such compassionate (read: liberal) programs as subsidized health care, aid for the working poor to buy food, and non-discrimination ordinances.

Speaking of non-discrimination, just two months after Sen. Portman’s son came out, he gave a commencement speech at Michigan Law. One hundred students walked out, complaining of Portman’s “openly hostile” views on gay rights. He also has said that businesses should be able to legally fire people because of their sexual orientation, which conservatives believe is an urban legend but actually happened just weeks ago in Michigan. That’s right – in 2013, a woman with no job performance issues was fired from her job, because she’s a lesbian.

Portman told Dana Bash on CNN this morning that he won’t “take a leadership role” on marriage equality in the Republican Party. That’s not courageous. It’s selfish and cowardly, and Sen. Portman should be ashamed.