In 1996, he voted for the Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibits federal recognition of same-sex marriage.
In 1999, he voted to prohibit gay couples in the District from adopting.
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“We must define the nature and scope of this struggle, or else it will define us,” the president said.
Two years ago, his son told him he was gay.
And this week, Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) announced a change of heart, saying he had decided to support same-sex marriage. The stance puts him at odds with two-thirds of Republican voters and the rest of his fellow Republicans in the Senate.
“I have come to believe that if two people are prepared to make a lifetime commitment to love and care for each other in good times and in bad, the government shouldn’t deny them the opportunity to get married,” Portman wrote in an essay for the Columbus Dispatch.
For a Midwestern conservative who served in the George W. Bush administration and made Mitt Romney’s shortlist for vice president, Portman’s reversal was both striking and of the moment.
Public opinion has been shifting rapidly in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage, and in two weeks, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act. Yet just eight years ago, Portman’s own state was ground zero in a national, and largely successful, movement against gay marriage.
The main reason for Portman’s shift? Family — specifically his son Will, a junior at Yale University.
The Portman family makes big decisions together after much contemplation, said J. Dennis Hastert, a former Republican House speaker who has been close to the Portmans since the senator was in the House leadership in the 1990s.
“Rob’s the kind of person who’d give it a lot of thought and a lot of personal time and insight before he makes a decision like that,” Hastert said. “ . . . It’s certainly going to rile some people in the party, especially to the right, but I think it’s a personal decision and a decision that goes along with Rob’s thinking. I think he’s very concerned that our party is a big-tent party.”
The announcement surprised former congressman Thomas M. Davis of Virginia, who also served in House leadership with Portman.
“He’s been traditionally very risk-averse on those issues, but he’s very cerebral,” Davis said. “You do not see any Republicans just coming out on this issue. It’s changing, but this is not the safe place for Republicans with ambition. So you’ve got to think this is a sincere move on his part.”
As the news spread through the political world Friday morning, Portman was unreachable in the Tennessee wilderness, where he was on his annual kayaking and mountain-biking trip with Will and his other son, Jed.
“Especially proud of my dad today,” Will tweeted early Friday, linking to the editorial in the Dispatch.
With the Portmans out of pocket, pundits and politicos were left to haggle over what the announcement means for the Republican Party and Portman’s political future — his current Senate term will be ending just as the 2016 presidential race heats up. Leading Republican gay rights groups praised his decision, while social conservatives decried it.
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