The Republican leadership in Congress
has blocked bills that would have reaffirmed the federal ban on gay
marriage, known as the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
According to POLITICO.com,
Republicans are softening their opposition to gay rights. But while
the site reported that Republican leaders had worked behind the
scenes to kill DOMA-affirming bills, it did not list any examples.
POLITICO.com does quote several leading
social conservatives as saying their focus is on the economy, not the
relationships of gay men and lesbians.
“I personally have deep convictions
about my children having a financially stable country that they can
live in,” Florida Rep. Allen West said. “I want my daughters to
have the opportunities that I had, and that's what concerns me
That's what keeps me up awake at night, not worrying about who's
sleeping with who.”
That's a retreat for West, who has
previously warned that gay
marriage would lead to the destruction of society and who last
year told the Sun Sentinel that he believes being gay is a
choice.
“You cannot compare me and my race to
a behavior,” said West, who is African-American. “Sexuality is a
behavior. And so yeah, I said I can't change my color. People can
change their sexual behavior. And I've seen people do that.”
Another vociferous opponent of gay
rights, Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert, told the site, “That's not
something we're focused on now.”
In 2010, Gohmert predicted on the House
floor that acceptance of openly gay military service would be
America's downfall.
“To my friend who said that history
would judge us poorly, I would submit if you would look thoroughly at
history – and I'm not saying it's cause and effect – but when
militaries throughout history of the greatest nations in the world
have adopted the policy that 'fine for homosexuality to be over' –
you can keep it private and control your hormones fine, if you can't,
that's fine too – they're toward the end of their existence as a
great nation,” Gohmert said.
Rep. Jerry Nadler, a Democrat from New
York and the sponsor of a bill which would repeal DOMA, said that
Republicans were slowly waking up to the reality that the world has
changed.
“Republicans see an issue that was a
good wedge issue no longer is and will be a losing issue in the
future,” he told POLITICO.com. “They can't just walk away from
it; their base will get mad at them. They're slowly walking away
from it because it's an increasingly losing issue.”
(Related: Both
sides criticize John Boehner over defense of gay marriage ban DOMA.)