Chambliss says he won't be changing his position on gay marriage. 'I'm not gay. So I'm not going to marry one'

Support for gay marriage is picking up steam all over the country — except on Capitol Hill.

Take Sen. Saxby Chambliss. When asked if his views had changed on gay marriage, the Georgia Republican quipped: “I’m not gay. So I’m not going to marry one.”


In interviews this week with POLITICO, most Republican lawmakers and some conservative Democrats still voiced opposition to gay marriage, despite the dramatic swing in public opinion supporting it. While they have certainly muted their rhetoric since 2004 — when Republicans campaigned on the promise to outlaw gay marriage — lawmakers who remain opposed to the issue could jeopardize any legislative response if the Supreme Court rules against same-sex marriage in a pair of high-profile cases. The cases will be argued next week.

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The disconnect between inside-and-outside-the-Beltway attitudes comes at a thorny time, especially for Republicans. The party is trying to broaden its appeal to younger Americans — who support gay marriage in large numbers — as well as scores of new voting blocs. Some establishment figures have changed course, with Rob Portman last week becoming the first sitting GOP senator to endorse gay marriage, after learning that his son is gay. And the Republican National Committee, in a bluntly worded report detailing the GOP’s political woes, called for the party to become more sensitive on the issue of gay rights.

But many lawmakers are changing their legislative tactics and toning down their public rhetoric — rather than undergoing a sea change in their stances.

“I’m still not supportive of it,” said Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), who is up for reelection in 2014, adding he still backs the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act that the Supreme Court is reviewing.

“I’m with South Carolina,” said GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham, who also faces voters next year. “I believe in traditional marriage — between a man and a woman, without animosity. I don’t mind if people are able to transfer their property, visit their loved ones in hospitals, but marriage to me, I’ve stayed with the concept of traditional marriage.”

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Republicans, for instance, have largely dropped efforts to amend the Constitution in order to ban gay marriage. Instead, GOP senators are increasingly arguing that the matter should be left up to the states and not the federal government. They may have an opportunity to test that approach during this week’s budget debate if Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) offers an amendment targeting the federal Defense of Marriage Act that sources say she is considering.

“I believe in traditional, historic and the religious nature of marriage,” said Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, the tea party Republican and possible 2016 presidential candidate. “Marriage is always a state issue, and I think it should remain a state issue.”

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Arizona Sen. John McCain, 76, said “no” when asked if he’s moving away from opposing gay marriage, even as his wife, Cindy, and daughter Meghan have announced their support. And asked why his party isn’t moderating on gay marriage as it has on immigration, McCain said he sees the two issues differently.

“A lot of the views on marriage varies a lot with different parts of the country,” McCain said. “On the issue of gay marriage, that is a moral issue, in my view. It depends on your fundamental beliefs, but on an issue such as comprehensive immigration, it’s an issue of whether we’re going to, in my view, move forward with an issue that needs to be addressed: 11 million people who are out there living in the shadows. So I view those two issues somewhat differently.”

A new Washington Post poll found support for same-sex marriage at historic highs, with 58 percent of Americans backing the right to marry for gays and lesbians, compared with 36 percent who believe it should be banned, a complete reversal from a decade ago. Among younger voters, the poll found a resounding 81 percent supporting same-sex marriage.

But while there’s been an uptick in support among older Americans, only 44 percent of those older than 65 back gay marriage, the poll said. The average age of senators is 61, while House members on average are 57, according to the Congressional Research Service.

On same-sex marriage, many Republican senators say their fundamental beliefs simply haven’t changed.

“For me, it’s something that I’ve held steady on since I was in the House of Representatives when we were debating this and when I first got to the Senate,” said South Dakota Sen. John Thune, a Republican who opposes same-sex marriage and was first elected in 2004 when he defeated a sitting Democratic leader, Tom Daschle.

In the run-up to the 2004 and 2006 elections, Republicans pushed for votes on constitutional amendments to define marriage as between a man and a woman. Both times, they failed to overcome a Senate filibuster — much less the two-thirds majority needed for passage — and they also failed in the GOP-led House.

But the anti-gay marriage fights helped serve a political purpose: The push was aimed at energizing the GOP base and social conservatives who saw public opinion on their side, while Democrats shied away from the culture war.

As times have changed, and public opinion is moving against them, Republicans are increasingly trying to make the case that gay marriage should be left up to the states, even as nine states and the District of Columbia have endorsed same-sex marriages.

“It’s a state’s rights issue,” said North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr, who was one of eight Republican senators in 2010 who voted for the repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy prohibiting openly gay individuals from serving in the military. “I don’t think there’s any role for Congress.”

But depending on what the Supreme Court decides this summer, Congress could end up intervening on the issue.

Next week, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in a pair of cases — one on a California same-sex marriage ban known as Proposition 8 and another on DOMA, which defined marriage as between a man and a woman.

It’s far from clear how Congress would respond if the court strikes down the right for gay and lesbian couples to marry, or if the justices uphold gay marriage.

“This isn’t something that senators are discussing all the time,” said Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee.

Indeed, some senators don’t want to discuss it at all — including some red-state Democrats who are up for reelection.

Asked about her views on same-sex marriage, North Carolina Sen. Kay Hagan, who is running for reelection in 2014, said she was “disappointed” by last year’s referendum in her state that banned gay marriage. But she declined to discuss her views on the subject.

“Right now, I’m going to focus on jobs in North Carolina and getting this debt and deficit under control,” Hagan said Wednesday.

Added Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, another Democrat who faces voters next year: “I got to go to the floor and talk about homeland security.”

After President Barack Obama reversed his opposition to same-sex marriage last year, some Democrats have changed course and certainly softened their views, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who said last year that “people should be able to marry whomever they want” even if he personally believed marriage to be defined as between a man and a woman.

Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, a moderate Democrat from a red state who just won reelection last year, suggested in an interview that her views are evolving even if she doesn’t yet back gay marriage.

“I think there’s a lot of shift going on in the country, and I’m thinking about it,” said McCaskill, who called Portman’s announcement “courageous.”