Via NRO, Rob Portman was criticized by gay-marriage supporters for reconsidering his stance on SSM only after it affected him personally. This guy, naturally, will be criticized harshly for not reconsidering his stance after it affected him personally. His choice of words is interesting, though. Not only does he not think that his son chose to be gay, he uses a term more often heard from gay-rights supporters when he says he hasn’t “evolved” to the point of supporting SSM. More backstory via WaPo:

Salmon voted for the Defense of Marriage Act and for a ban on gay adoptions in Washington, D.C. His wife, Nancy Salmon, led the Arizona chapter of the group United Families International during an unsuccessful 2006 fight to ban gay marriage, civil unions and domestic partnerships in the state constitution. (A narrower marriage amendment was passed two years later)…

Salmon’s son, also named Matt Salmon, leads the Arizona Log Cabin Republicans, a pro-gay rights GOP group. In a 2010 interview with the Phoenix New Times, the 22-year-old revealed that he was dating Kent Flake, the second cousin of Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.). In the article, both young men discussed coming out to their conservative Mormon families.

“The first time I had a conversation with [my father] about it, it did not go well. He was very upset and said some things right off that I know he doesn’t really feel,” Salmon told the paper. “He’s never called me any slurs or anything like that, but he made it clear he didn’t like it.” The younger Salmon said his father came to support his activism even if he didn’t agree with it, but that the struggle for his family’s complete acceptance continued.

Via the Hill, to my surprise, there are still 20 Democrats in the House who either oppose gay marriage or have stayed conspicuously silent on the subject. Most are from red states, as you might expect, but there are a few blue-state outliers in there. Dan Lipinski comes from a district in Illinois that hasn’t elected a Republican to Congress since the Ford administration and yet at last check he still opposes SSM. I wonder if he’ll end up on some lefty group’s primary radar next year or in 2016.