Salon.com > Rob Portman

Rob Portman is not sold on ENDA

Tue, 07 May 2013 12:57:00 +0000

Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, who recently became the first Republican senator to back gay marriage, will reportedly not support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act in its current form. The legislation would implement protections against discrimination for LGBT Americans.

Meredith Shiner of Roll Call reports:

Sen. Rob Portman likely will not support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act as it is currently written, according to a source familiar with the senator’s thinking.

Portman was the first Senate Republican to support gay marriage, when in March he revealed his college-aged son Will is gay. But Portman is concerned about the current ENDA language and has demurred in public when asked whether he could support the bill, introduced last month by a bipartisan group of senators led by Democrat Jeff Merkley of Oregon.

Director of Log Cabin Republicans: You can thank Mitt Romney for recent marriage equality gains

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 18:56:00 +0000

President Barack Obama publicly backed marriage equality in May 2012, reaffirmed his position in his second inaugural address and had his administration file pro-gay marriage briefs in both the Prop 8 and Defense of Marriage Act Supreme Court cases. In the months since, politicians from both parties have come out in support of gay marriage, and many advocates view the president's reversal on equal marriage as a tipping point for other lawmakers, even among Republicans.

But not Gregory Angelo, the executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans. He credits Mitt Romney's tone-deaf position on these issues and his crushing defeat in the 2012 election for slowly (seriously slowly) bringing the GOP around to marriage equality, as he told the Advocate:

Santorum: “Suicidal” for GOP to embrace gay marriage

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 15:53:00 +0000

Though two Republican senators, Mark Kirk and Rob Portman, have recently announced their support for marriage equality, Rick Santorum doesn't think the party will ever embrace the issue.

Referencing Republicans who supported pro-choice efforts in the '60s and '70s, Santorum told the Des Moines Register: “I’m sure you could go back and read stories, oh, you know, ‘The Republican party’s going to change. This is the future.’ Obviously that didn’t happen."

"I think you’re going to see the same stories written now and it’s not going to happen," he said. "The Republican party’s not going to change on this issue. In my opinion it would be suicidal if it did."

Santorum also noted: “I’m hopeful the Supreme Court learned its lesson about trying to predict where the American public is going on issues and trying to find rights in the Constitution that sit with the fancy of the day."

A divide grows in Ohio over Rob Portman’s gay marriage reversal

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 12:46:00 +0000

Republican Sen. Rob Portman's reversal on marriage equality was applauded by gay rights advocates and others across the country, but conservatives in his home state of Ohio have denounced the change and mobilized to block his reelection.

As reported in the New York Times:

No one heckled Senator Rob Portman during his first appearance before thousands of Ohioans since becoming the most prominent elected Republican in the country to endorse same-sex marriage... but for some of the Ohioans who acknowledged Mr. Portman, doubts flickered below the surface.

“Senator!” said one spectator, Pete Kidnocker, reaching out to shake Mr. Portman’s hand. But after Mr. Portman passed, Mr. Kidnocker said he would vote for an alternative in a Republican primary and accused the senator of “betraying his principles.”

“If you’re a Christian and you believe in those principles, whether your son or daughter is a homosexual, you can’t change your principles,” he said.

Second GOP senator backs marriage equality

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 16:10:00 +0000

Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois is the second Republican senator to announce his support for marriage equality, following Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, who recently said he decided to back gay marriage because of his gay son.

"When I climbed the Capitol steps in January," Kirk said in a statement, "I promised myself that I would return to the Senate with an open mind and greater respect for others."

He continued: "Same-sex couples should have the right to civil marriage. Our time on this earth is limited, I know that better than most. Life comes down to who you love and who loves you back -- government has no place in the middle."

Democratic Sens. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Tom Carper of Delaware also announced their support this week, leaving just seven Dems who remain opposed to gay marriage: Mark Pryor, Alaska, Heidi Heitkamp, N.D., Tim Johnson, S.D., Bill Nelson, Fla., Mary Landrieu, La., Joe Manchin, W. Va., and Joe Donnelly, Ind.

Rob Portman’s son writes about his “coming out” experience

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 13:04:00 +0000

In the Monday edition of the Yale Daily News, Will Portman, Sen. Rob Portman's (R-OH) son, wrote about the experience of coming out to his mother and father as a Yale freshman in 2010. The revelation that his son was gay would eventually change the Ohio lawmaker's position on marriage equality, making him the first sitting Senate Republican to endorse same-sex marriage.

As Will wrote for the Daily News:

I came to Yale as a freshman in the fall of 2010 with two big uncertainties hanging over my head: whether my dad would get elected to the Senate in November, and whether I’d ever work up the courage to come out of the closet.

I made some good friends that first semester, took a couple of interesting classes and got involved in a few rewarding activities. My dad won his election. On the surface, things looked like they were going well. But the truth was, I wasn’t happy.

One night, I snuck up to the stacks in Sterling Library and did some research on coming out. The thought of telling people I was gay was pretty terrifying, but I was beginning to realize that coming out, however difficult it seemed, was a lot better than the alternative: staying in, all alone.

Salon limerick contest

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 14:59:00 +0000

Savvy Salon readers dissect the Ryan budget, Rob Portman’s reversal and more:
In a Salon piece I read by Sirota,

Ryan's budget exceeds every quota,

Of upper class' perks,

As the rich get the works.

It kicks the middle-class right in the scrota.

Mike Moulton

Gainesville, Fla.
Rob Portman, you demonstrate well,

The ethic conservatives sell:

When it’s my child in need,

Time to challenge the creed;

When it’s yours, damn those sinners to hell.

Johanna Richmond

Red Hook, N.Y.
Now we've all heard Reince Priebus's case,

That the GOP needs a new face.

But Palin just snorted,

And Limbaugh retorted,

"That's crap - we should play to the base."

Richard B Weinberg

Winston Salem, N.C.
I saw Donald Trump on TV,

At CPAC, at quarter past three.

He never did balk,

And the theme of his talk,

Was “Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me!”

Raymond Cavender

Newnan, Ga.

Will abandoning the weapons ban help gun safety?
The size of the pistol one packs,

Relates, if you must know the facts,

To being devoid,

To quote my friend Freud,

Of that which belongs in one’s slacks.

Republicans still don’t like gay marriage very much

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 13:16:00 +0000

Despite polling that show attitudes about gay marriage have shifted - and Republican Rob Portman's recent announcement that he now supports it - most Republicans in Congress are unswayed.

A new survey from Pew Research found that the shift in public opinion on gay marriage "over the past decade is among the largest changes in opinion on any policy issue over this time period," including 14% of Americans and 28% of gay marriage supporters.

But then there is Congress. “I’m not gay. So I’m not going to marry one," said Sen. Saxby Chambliss, who is retiring in 2014.

From Politico:

Social conservatives slam RNC for supporting Rob Portman

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 13:03:00 +0000

Social conservatives told the RNC not to be "pandering idiots," after Chairman Reince Priebus stood by Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, who over the weekend came out in support of same-sex marriage.

From the National Review Online:

“I think [the RNC] should pretty much ignore him,” says Phyllis Schlafly, a longtime conservative activist, in an interview with National Review Online. “I think he has made a mistake, and he probably won’t get reelected.”

Ralph Reed, the founder of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, says the party has to be careful. “If the Republican party tries to retreat from being a pro-marriage, pro-family party, the big tent is going to become a pup tent very fast,” he says. “I am concerned that some in the party are going wobbly on this issue.”

Brian Brown, of the National Organization for Marriage, told NRO that Portman will now likely get a challenger in the primary. “This is a critical issue, and to act like it’s just no big deal is just wrong."

LGBT’s new allies: The Gay Kid Converts

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 14:30:00 +0000

Ohio's Rob Portman made headlines on Friday as the first sitting Republican senator to back marriage equality in the Senate. But like so many other conservative lawmakers before him, the senator didn't think much about the rights of gays and lesbians until the issue got personal.

For Portman, it was his 21-year-old son coming out as gay that "allowed" him to see the issue as a "dad who loves his son a lot and wants him to have the same opportunities that his brother and sister would have -- to have a relationship like Jane and I have had for over 26 years.”

What about Rob Portman’s daughter?

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 13:38:00 +0000

The analogies started rolling out minutes after Ohio publications went live with the news that Sen. Rob Portman now supports marriage equality because of his gay son. "Rob Portman comes out as vegetarian after watching Babe on DVD," joked one tweeter. On a more serious note, Steve Benen commented that he'd be happy to introduce Portman to Americans in poverty and to the African-Americans whose votes Republicans are seeking to suppress. He concluded, "It seems the key to American social progress in the 21st century is simple: more conservatives having more life experiences."

But here is a life experience Portman already has: He is married to a woman. He has a daughter. So do lots of people who oppose safe and legal abortion and better access to contraception. Some of them are even women. When it comes to reproductive rights, it appears, social empathy goes only so far.

GOP Sen. Rob Portman comes out in support of gay marriage

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 12:01:00 +0000

CINCINNATI (AP) — Republican U.S. Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio says he now supports gay marriage because one of his sons is gay.

Portman told reporters Thursday in Washington that his views began changing in 2011 when his college-age son Will told his parents he was gay.

Portman says he reconsidered gay marriage from a different perspective, one of a father who wants all three of his children to have happy lives with people they love.

He says he discussed the issue with his pastor and others, including former Vice President Dick Cheney, whose daughter is a lesbian.

As a member of the House in 1996, Portman had voted for the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman and bars federal recognition of same-sex marriage.

Romney’s running mate distraction campaign reaches its zenith

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 11:45:00 +0000

Whenever the news starts getting a little rough for Mitt Romney, there are suddenly rumors that he's just about to pick his running mate. So it is not particularly surprising that we are suddenly hearing more about Romney's potential vice president than, say, his tax returns. Romney says he is going to announce the selection to his supporters soon, with an "app" (he will announce the selection the traditional way, by leaking it to the press just before making the announcement).

The selection itself isn't completely meaningless: If Romney's elected, the vice president may end up having some influence over policy, especially in an administration headed by someone known for his fungible ideology. There's even a chance Romney could make a currently little-known politician into a future presidential contender, though Republican V.P. picks after Bush I haven't really gone on to much glory.