[Tomorrow, we return to travels overseas. This post is inspired by an email from
home.]
This just in from the Human Rights Campaign: Republican Senator Rob Portman supports
gay marriage.
His change of heart came about for the same reason that millions of others have taken a fresh look at this issue around the country: someone close to him came out as gay. In the Senator's case, it was his college-aged son, Will. As Portman told reporters,
"It allowed me to think of this issue from a new perspective, and that's of 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 [my wife] and I have had for over 26 years."
We are asked to thank Senator Portman. I think we should be thanking
Will.
I think we should be throwing out of office
every elected official who can’t see beyond his own family when considering
laws that affect every constituent in his district.
It wasn’t until my own daughter was
struggling in school that I saw we needed to provide public education.
It wasn’t until my son fell in love with an
undocumented worker and my granddaughter went back to a third world country
with her deported mother that I understood we need to think on a global level
about immigration and trade.
It wasn’t until my sister couldn’t get health
insurance…
Really, Senator Portman, Vice President
Cheney, and all of the rest of you on both sides of the aisle, in the pulpits
of the country, or holding signs in the street. Look around! If
you don’t know a gay person flying under the radar, it’s not because you don’t
know a gay person, it’s because the gay person you know is good at flying under
the radar.
Even if that person is your son,
evidently. I think about what it
must have been like for Will, knowing that his father was making a career out
of trampling on his civil rights.
How much harder to have the conversation knowing that your father’s
affirmation costs him his job. How
many family photos paste a smile on the pain of supporting a campaign that
invalidates you as a person? It’s
not just the law that keeps people like Will from marrying their true
loves.
I am glad that Senator Portman chose love
over party. I am glad that Will’s
future can include bringing his boyfriend home for Thanksgiving dinner. And I
hope that every policy maker can look beyond his or her own family album and
realize that government for the people means ALL the people, not just the ones
that you have personally invested in.
Update to this post: My sister, who lives in Ohio, tells me that Will came out two years ago. Heartbreaking! Not until Portman wasn't selected by Romney, not until Portman was elected to the Senate, not until the tide started turning, did he come out with his bold statement that his son was entitled to the same roll of the dice on marriage as the breeders. Politician first, Dad second. Compassionate human being third.
ReplyDelete