Republican Sen. Rob Portman finds out marriage equality affects his family, decides he supports it

Ohio Sen. Rob Portman has done an about-face on marriage equality the Republican way: He's learned the issue affects his family, so he's less enthusiastic about bigotry than he once was. Portman's 21-year-old son Will came out to his parents two years ago, and now, after an apparently extended period of reflection, the father has written an op-ed on the subject and told CNN that:

"I've come to the conclusion that for me, personally, I think this is something that we should allow people to do, to get married, and to have the joy and stability of marriage that I've had for over 26 years. That I want all of my children to have, including our son, who is gay."

It's not like Portman either shut his mouth on gay rights issues or shifted his position quietly in the two years between learning of his son's sexuality and deciding he supported marriage equality. Back in June, Portman was asked for his position on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, specifically whether it should be illegal to fire someone for being gay. Looking at the video and transcript in retrospect, he does appear uncomfortable. His first answer to the question is "I don't believe in discrimination." He brings the Paycheck Fairness Act into it, seemingly trying not to talk too directly about ENDA. But his answer in the end? "A lot of [laws like ENDA and Paycheck Fairness] would create a lot of legal rights of action that would make it more difficult for employers to feel comfortable, to be able to hire, and to keep this economy moving. So you have to be careful how you do it."

So, yeah. Nine months before he announced his support for marriage equality, Rob Portman was coming down on the side of the legality of firing people because they're gay. Because to make it illegal might lead to employers worrying they'd be sued if the discriminated against gay people. He might have had a good reason for saying this, though! Portman was short-listed as a vice-presidential possibility for Mitt Romney, and, while he told Romney's vetting team and Romney himself that his son was gay, coming out in favor of ENDA might have damaged his ambitions. Romney's people say Will Portman being gay played "no role whatsoever" in Portman losing out to Paul Ryan. But supporting a law against employment discrimination? That likely would have done some damage.

There is another possibility, too. Though he is certainly a social conservative, Portman is much more identified with his business-over-people positions than with his telling-people-what-to-do-in-bed positions. It wouldn't be particularly inconsistent for him to think his son should be able to get married, but also that his son's employer should be able to fire him for being gay. So someone definitely needs to circle back and ask Portman whether he'd support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act as well as marriage equality.