The GOP and Same-Sex Marriage

Republican Senator Rob Portman's endorsement of gay marriage today is the latest sign of the fundamental GOP struggle with America's rapidly-changing views on marriage. Portman says his change took a lot of thought and began after he learned one of his sons is gay. Portman, a prominent Republican, is a former US trade representative and White House budget director. Mitt Romney considered him as a running mate. He is the first Republican Senator to openly back gay marriage. Portman’s public endorsement makes him the third Republican now in federal office to endorse same-sex marriage. More than 100 high-profile Republicans recently urged the Supreme Court to strike down California’s Prop. 8 and allow gay marriage in that state. But only two of them are federal officeholders. While many states have passed constitutional bans prohibiting gay marriage, but public opinion is shifting and perhaps the Portman endorsement is the beginning of a GOP shift to match. The Supreme Court is also set to consider same-sex marriage. In oral arguments later this month, the Court will consider challenges both to Prop. 8, which outlawed same sex- marriage in California, and to the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which Portman co-sponsored as a congressman. He now thinks parts of the law should be repealed. Foster Friess, a Republican mega-donor, accepted an award at the Conservative Political Action Conference today standing next to Rick Santorum, a favorite of social conservatives whose presidential candidacy Friess backed with millions of dollars last year. Friess stopped short of endorsing gay marriage, but he recently said the party has to move away from “gay bashers” and at a minimum allow same-sex couples the same rights in the tax code as the rest of Americans. There have been other high-profile Republican supporters of same-sex marriage. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger fought against Prop. 8, which banned same-sex marriage in his state in 2008. Vice President Dick Cheney, who, like Portman, has a homosexual child, said he thought people should be able to enter into relationships of their choosing during the 2004 presidential election. But he clarified that he wasn’t speaking for President Bush who opposed same-sex marriage. So opposition to same-sex marriage was the official Bush White House position. And in Ohio, Portman's home state, a state ballot initiative in 2004 is credited with helping get out conservative voters and swing the state toward Bush. The Ohio state constitution bans gay marriage as a result.“Only a union between one man and one woman may be a marriage valid in or recognized by this state and its political subdivisions,” according to the 2004 Ohio amendment. “This state and its political subdivisions shall not create or recognize a legal status for relationships of unmarried individuals that intends to approximate the design qualities, significance or effect of marriage.” ABC News asked Cheney last year whether gay marriage would be a relevant issue in the future. “I don’t know that it’s relevant now. You know? There are a lot of big issues,” Cheney said. When asked if he wished he had pushed a little harder on the issue, Cheney answered, “The fact of the matter is that it is regulated by the states,...I think different states are likely to come to different conclusions, and that’s appropriate. I don’t think there should necessarily be a federal policy in this area. I try to be open-minded about it as much as I can and tolerant of those relationships.” Thirty-one US states have provisions in their state constitution that ban same-sex unions. Twenty-eight of them have passed such measures since Cheney said he would try to be tolerant of same-sex relationships. Only nine states and the District of Columbia allow gay marriage. But now America is experiencing a shift on the issue. An ABC News-Washington Post poll in May of 2012 found 53% of Americans support gay marriage, up from 36% in 2006. One year ago President Obama endorsed gay marriage. At the time he said the issue should be left to the states. The President still says that, but he has added the caveat that he can’t imagine a compelling justification for outlawing same-sex marriage. But the shift is occurring slower among Republicans, especially the social conservative part of their base. Even still, you can sense a shift. Senator Marco Rubio, a potential 2016 GOP presidential candidate, recently said, “I’ve always been uncomfortable with a federal constitutional amendment on anything, particularly on that, because it steps on the rights of states to define marriage,..." Rubio urged “mutual respect” at the CPAC conference on Thursday.“ Just because I believe that states should have the right to define marriage in a traditional way does not make me a bigot,” he said. Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., who has given the GOP a libertarian voice recently, wants to get government out of the marriage business entirely. “I’m an old-fashioned traditionalist. I believe in the historic and religious definition of marriage,...That being said, I’m not for eliminating contracts between adults. I think there are ways to make the tax code more neutral, so it doesn’t mention marriage. Then we don’t have to redefine what marriage is; we just don’t have marriage in the tax code.” Social conservatives still loudly oppose same-sex marriage in the GOP. But it is worth noting that while their personal opinions differ, Rubio’s policy position is not unlike what President Obama’s was when he personally endorsed gay marriage in May 2012. Obama said then that there was a healthy debate on the issue going on in the states. Then, just after North Carolina had banned same-sex marriage, Obama said states should have the final word and he explained that he hadn’t supported gay marriage earlier because he didn’t want to “nationalize” the issue. “I continue to believe that this is an issue that is going to be worked out at the local level, because historically, this has not been a federal issue, what’s recognized as a marriage,” Obama said in 2012. But while the country and Republicans like Portman are reconsidering, President Obama seems to have further evolved. Obama said recently that he can’t envision a justifiable reason for a state to ban same-sex marriage. And his administration has joined the legal fight to overturn Prop. 8 in California. There we have it, dear readers. The states will probably continue to define marriage. But, the gay marriage states' rights issue is a lot like the voting rights issue we have already discussed. States decide how to regulate elections, but the Supreme Court has for 40 years upheld Congress's right to eliminate voting discrimination based on race and the Court has used statistics to determine where the discrimination is occurring. I think the argument about same-sex marriage is over. The Court will permit it. BUT, many conservatives are particularly worried about same-sex couples adopting children because there is no long-term scientific evidence that these children are not harmed by living in such a domestic environment. Can we hope that the Court will carve out and prevent same-sex couple adoption and await serious long-term, non-anecdotal evidence that such children are not harmed by the experience. This would make it easier for those opposed to same-sex marriage to swallow hard and accept it.