Last night Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., took to Tumblr to announce her support for gay marriage.
“I have come to the conclusion that our government should not limit the right to marry based on who you love,” McCaskill wrote. “While churches should never be required to conduct marriages outside of their religious beliefs, neither should the government tell people who they have a right to marry.”
Last May, Sen. McCaskill said the issue of same-sex marriage should be left up to individual states.
Many liberals cheered McCaskill’s change of heart.
Curiously, many of these people weren’t quite as pleased when Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, a Republican, announced his support for gay marriage more than a week ago.
California Democrat Alex Q. Walker, for example, had nothing but praise for McCaskill:
My bad I didn't post when I saw earlier: @clairecmc comes out for #marriageequality! #thankyou #lgbt #equality #NOH8 http://t.co/ddlN15drgt
— Alex Walker (@AlexQWalker) March 25, 2013
But when Portman announced his support for gay marriage more than a week before McCaskill, Walker sneered, “about time.”
.@GOP Senator @robportman now supports #marriageequality! It only took 2 years after son (a @Yale man, BTW) came out to him #abouttime #LGBT
— Alex Walker (@AlexQWalker) March 15, 2013
LGBT advocate Kim Smythe was delighted with McCaskill’s “beautiful” statement:
https://twitter.com/KimSmythe2/status/316088425512050688
By contrast, she gave Portman an earful:
https://twitter.com/KimSmythe2/status/312586669687709696
https://twitter.com/KimSmythe2/status/312587064782774272
https://twitter.com/KimSmythe2/status/312587591847395328
https://twitter.com/KimSmythe2/status/312587860232503296
https://twitter.com/KimSmythe2/status/312588454242430978
Tyson Pruitt, a corporate marketing professional from St. Louis says he is proud of McCaskill:
https://twitter.com/Tyson_Pruitt/status/316041682195988480
But he called Portman “selfish”:
https://twitter.com/Tyson_Pruitt/status/312754813282684929
Tom Williams tweeted thanks to McCaskill:
Thank you, @clairemc. Claire McCaskill backs gay marriage http://t.co/weywyf1Ui1
— Nomadsheart (@nomadsheart) March 25, 2013
But he said Portman’s change of heart was neither heroic nor courageous:
Portman …commended for taking the first step toward supporting marriage equality, but he is no hero nor courageous. http://t.co/tA6izyccrh
— Nomadsheart (@nomadsheart) March 17, 2013
The double standard is nothing new, of course.
Dick Cheney supported gay marriage before Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and Claire McCaskill. #p2 #UniteBlue
— Sunny McSunnyface (@sunnyright) March 25, 2013
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