Josh Barro, Columnist

How Rob Portman Will Change the Gay Marriage Debate

When elected officials let their personal experience dictate their political position, it's not always bad.

March 15, 2013 at 5:13 PM UTC

Josh Barro is the lead writer for the Ticker, Bloomberg View's blog on economics, finance and politics. His primary areas of interest include tax and fiscal policy, state and local government, and planning and land use. Previously, Barro was a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research and a commercial real estate banker at Wells Fargo. He holds a bachelor's degree in psychology from Harvard and lives in Queens, New York.

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Senator Rob Portman of Ohio now supports same-sex marriage, saying his personal views were affected by his son's coming out two years ago.

First of all, good for Rob Portman. If he'd reacted negatively when his son came out to him, he certainly would not have been the first opponent of gay rights to do so. It feels weird to compliment Portman for treating his own child with decency, but many parents of gays and lesbians fail on this front. Portman didn't, and for that he deserves credit.