Andrea Lafferty, president of the
Christian conservative Traditional Values Coalition, believes Ohio
Senator Rob Portman should have told his son that being gay is
“wrong.”
On Friday, Portman became the first GOP
senator to endorse gay marriage. Portman wrote in an op-ed that he
had a change of heart on the issue after his son, Will Portman, came
out to him and his wife, Jane.
(Related: Senator
Rob Portman reverses course on gay marriage.)
In a statement posted at her group's
website, Lafferty mocked Portman's change of heart by equating being
gay with drunk driving.
“My child is a drunk driver and I
love him,” she quoted Portman as saying. “It is a part of his
identity, who he is.”
“Therefore, today I am reversing my
opposition to drunk driving.”
“My child is a drunk driver. That
has personalized the issue for me and taken me above the whole
discussion of the morality of it. It is now personal with me.”
After her satire introduction, Lafferty
commented: “The tough part of being a parent is telling one of
those young souls whom we have been charged with raising that he or
she is wrong. But because it is tough that doesn't mean that we are
excused from doing it or we can delegate our responsibility to a
teacher or 'the village' or some other entity.”