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.)