The headline reads… "Sen. Rob Portman comes out in favor of gay marriage after son comes out as gay":

Republican U.S. Sen. Rob Portman on Thursday announced he has reversed his longtime opposition to same-sex marriage after reconsidering the issue because his 21-year-old son, Will, is gay.

Portman said his son, a junior at Yale University, told him and his wife, Jane, that he's gay and "it was not a choice, it was who he is and that he had been that way since he could remember."

"It allowed me to think of this issue from a new perspective, and that's of a Dad who loves his son a lot and wants him to have the same opportunities that his brother and sister would have — to have a relationship like Jane and I have had for over 26 years," Portman told reporters in an interview at his office.

It's great that Portman has turned around, but this article infuriates me.  Just why did it change his mind?  He says his son's gayness allowed him to see the issue from "a new perspective" — what's new?  Just because it's your son?

That's the problem I find with a lot of conservatives.  They completely lack empathy.  Unless it is happening to them or a loved one, they just can't relate.  So if you're poor and struggling (and they're not) — well, sonny, that's your fault and you're obviously a moocher of government.

The selfish generation has come of age, and they are Republican politicians.

Eventually one of these Republican congressmen is going to find out his daughter is a woman, and then we're all set.

— Anil Dash (@anildash) March 15, 2013