Will Portman and the Duty to Come Out

Richard Socarides frames his story about Republican Ohio Senator Rob Portman's shift on same-sex marriage in terms of the senator's "brave, gay son." It's fine to praise Will Portman for coming out to his father when he was 19, but I think it's more correct to congratulate him for fulfilling his obligation to do so.

My uncle, Francis Schwarze, also came out to his parents when he was 19, in -- this is still astounding to me -- 1963. He was a freshman at the University of Southern California, still living at home. He wasn't caught, but came out of his own volition. As my mother put it to me, "He had become involved with someone and needed space to be gay."