GOP Gay Marriage: 75 Republicans Come Out in Support Of Marriage Equality

Impact

Seventy-five Republicans, including top advisers to former President George W. Bush, four former governors and two members of Congress, have signed a legal brief arguing that gay people have a constitutional right to marry.

According to the New York Times, the document will be submitted this week to the Supreme Court in support of a suit seeking to strike down Proposition 8, the 2008 California ballot initiative that banned same-sex marriage in the Golden State. 

The list of signers includes 75 Republican officials and influential thinkers. Among them are Meg Whitman, who supported Proposition 8 when she ran for California governor; Representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) and Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.); Stephen J. Hadley, a Bush national security adviser; Carlos Gutierrez, a commerce secretary under Bush; James B. Comey, a top Bush Justice Department official; David A. Stockman, President Ronald Reagan's first budget director; and Deborah Pryce, a former member of the House Republican leadership from Ohio who is retired from Congress.

Jon M. Huntsman Jr., the former Utah governor and failed 2012 presidential candidate also signed even though he opposed same-sex marriage when he ran for office. "The ground on this is obviously changing, but it is changing more rapidly than people think [...] I think that Republicans in the future are going to be a little bit more careful about focusing on these issues that tend to divide the party," Huntsman explained.

Read on the NYT