when 'them' becomes 'us'

Good for Rob Portman.

Senator Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican and a top contender for the party's vice-presidential candidacy last year, has come out in support of gay marriage—after his son, Will, came out as gay. "As a congressman, and more recently as a senator, I opposed marriage for same-sex couples," Portman writes in an editorial published today in the Columbus Dispatch. "Then something happened that led me to think through my position in a much deeper way." In 2011 Will, then in his first year at Yale, told his parents that he is gay. That knowledge, Portman writes, "prompted me to consider the issue from another perspective."

Considering things from another perspective is something we should all be doing all the time, not just when it involves someone you know. Everyone knows that it's hard to hate gays if you know gay people, it's hard to be bigoted towards minorities when you actually know some. So while I do salute Rob Portman coming around, it does sort of irk me that this is what it took for him to consider the thoughts and feelings of someone else. It's noble, but at the same time a little self-serving. It sort of reminds me when a celebrity suddenly starts a foundation to cure an illness or disease once they are diagnosed.

No go convince your Republican brethren, Mr. Portman.

EDIT: Here's a deeper dive into the negative connotations of all this.