Republican senator in not quite evil enough to disown gay son shock!

Dave Lartigue is unimpressed by a Republican senator suddenly realising gay people aren’t that bad after all just because his own son has come out:

Some are praising this guy’s sudden awareness that maybe gay people can be human beings too as a triumph of family love or, at the very, most minimal, least, a “baby step”. But is it? Will Senator Portman be able to examine this feeling and logically extend it? “What if my son were poor? What if he were in need of basic healthcare? What if he were a woman?” We can all hope, but it seems unlikely. No less a monster than Dick Cheney is all for gay marriage, and for the same Gay Kid reason. Doesn’t change anything else about him.

Being able to accept your son is gay is about the minimum required to be a decent human being; you shouldn’t get a cookie for that. Nor should you be proud of the fact that the only reason you suddenly realise that gay people deserve human rights is because somebody you know is gay, as most people can reach that conclusion without necessarily knowing an out gay person.