Retiring Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) said that he won't be following Sen. Rob Portman's (R-Ohio) recent support for gay marriage.
"I’m not gay. So I’m not going to marry one," he told Politico in an article published Thursday.
Chambliss' curt non-sequitur may illustrate how long it will take for other Republican senators to back gay marriage. Portman, the first GOP senator to do so, said his support was a result of his son's coming out; he wanted his son to have the same right to marry as straight people have, he said. Portman's decision, which came three days before former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's announcement that she also supported gay marriage, was unexpected given his conservatism and past opposition to it.
Portman said earlier this week that he didn't think his GOP colleagues were rethinking the issue. However, he said they supported him. "I thanked them, because I've had a number of people come up and express personal support for me and my family. And that's what I talked about. I circulated the op-ed so everybody saw it in my words," he said.
When asked by HuffPost whether he wished it didn't have to require a personal experience to change his views, he responded, "Well, it did," and adding that he was more focused on economic issues.
Before You Go
