UPDATE: Read my fleshed-outed article on this act of "bravery" HERE -- my first piece for the Huffington Post.
Top Republican senator shocks party
by reversing his opposition to same-sex marriage after his son told him he is gay
Republican Sen. Rob Portman is under fire from his conservative constituents -- and being called brave by others -- after announcing that he has had a change of heart on gay marriage. The Ohio lawmaker -- who was on Mitt Romney's short list of running mates -- said he made the decision after his 21-year-old son, Will (in checked shirt), came out to him. (Wait till the blond comes out next Christmas!)
While I would like to say that it makes me happy to have the first Republican senator come out in support of marriage equality, I still can't get past the whole "I need this EXACT situation to affect me PERSONALLY before I can do anything" mentality that seems to persist in the halls of Congress. Do I need to have a close relative have Parkinson's disease to think there should be government funding for a cure? Does a member of my family need to be African American for me to think the Voting Rights Act needs to be renewed? Does my house have to be destroyed by a hurricane to vote for emergency relief funding? Do I need to have a close relative of mine to be raped and murdered to think there should be laws against that?
The utter lack of empathy displayed by these people sickens me to the point that if and when some of them finally see the light, I almost hate them more .... for showing a complete lack of conviction. I guess this is just the way it works, but don't look for me to be handing out any medals for acting like a human being.
10 comments:
Spot ON, Kenneth! I can appreciate the senator's change of heart, but I really want to slap the guy. Hard!
I agree 150% with everything you said (including likelihood of blonde being another bottom, like we need more!)
BUT - I see this is marketing solely to the middle by these aholes. They need the middle, their far right base has no other options but to stick with them. So I suspect we will see this type of "cracking" on a host of other social issues as they work hard to regain control of the US, and the world via the middle - at whatever cost they have to swallow.
Think he'll ever realize his daughter is a woman?
What makes it even worse is he found out two years ago. He didn't just wait until it affected him, he waited until political opinion shifted in it's favor and his shot at the VP stop was over to come out in favor of it.
Top Republican senator shocks party by reversing his opposition to same-sex marriage TWO FUCKING YEARS after his son told him he is gay
--- the election is over and Portman is cold potatoes for 2016, so he may as well try looking more progressive. I think if were changing to honor his son, it should have been sooner
as i said, now one of his kids will have to be shot before he back off his support of assault rifles. I'm embarrassed that he "represents" me.
Call me skeptical... didn't the political right embrace the religious right when they (the former) thought they (the latter) would give them the votes necessary to rule? Well, that gave us Reagan unto Bush the younger, and we all know how that turned out. Portman's newfound acceptance of gay marriage should be viewed with an appropriate amount of consideration. Will conservatives demand the fealty of gays that they do of the religious? Will conservatives dish up the same level of promises with no follow-up action?
Ok.. tell me if I am wrong.. BUT.. they called the Senator brave for changing his stand on gay marriage, right? BULL!!! The BRAVE one is the son.. he came out to his Father.. a republican that was on the record against gays. THAT is bravery, to me.
Hm. So, people aren't allowed to evolve? Coming out's a waste of time then. Didn't Harvey Milk insist on his campaign workers coming out to their families precisely to humanize gay people and help sway opinions? The congressman doesn't necessarily need a medal of honor, but he's moved over to our side - and all we can do is shriek that he should have agreed with us all along without having a gay son? Seems a little stupid.
@Anonymous: No, not at all. He was expressing his feelings and I was expressing mine. I thanked him for his evolution, and kindly suggested that in the future he would learn from his experience and try to be empathetic without having to have firsthand experience. This is something I hope all of us would do.
Post a Comment