Dick Cheney, Rob Portman, and the Role Family Members and Friends of LGBT Americans Play in the Same-sex Marriage Debate

Increasingly, politicians on both sides of the aisle have come out in support of same-sex marriage in recent years. Most famously, in 2012 President Barack Obama told ABC News, “I think same-sex couples should be able to get married.” Former Vice President Dick Cheney and Ohio Senator Rob Portman, both prominent Republicans, have notably defied their party’s stance on the issue to come out in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage. For both, the issue is personal: Dick Cheney’s daughter is a lesbian, and Rob Portman’s son is gay.