Gerald Ford may be the highest ranking Republican ever to have formally supported gay marriage before he died, but more and more members of the GOP are announcing themselves officially as supporters of same-sex marriage.
Granted, a lot of this attention may have come as a consequence of the Log Cabin Republicans conference that was held in Washington over the weekend, but many on the right see that the GOP needs to be rebranded based on in it's core values of limited government, personal freedom, and lower taxes and that the party's recent focus on social issues such as abortion, gay rights, and immigration may be one of the reasons for their most recent decline in popularity and dismal performance at the polls.
The most recent Republicans to come out in favor of gay marriage are Meghan McCain, daughter of Senator and ex-presidential candidate John McCain, and Steve Schmidt, a veteran Republican strategist who worked for both the '04 Bush Campaign as well as the '08 McCain campaign.
Both spoke at the Log Cabin conference this past weekend, and both are trying to bring more a of a spotlight to the issue as something that traditional Republicans can get behind without compromising classic GOP ideals such as personal freedom and smaller government.
Nationwide public polling still shows the majority of the American public does not favor same-sex marriage, and lawmakers from both sides, including The President, have been hesitant to bring up bills in congress, content to allow states to draft their own local laws in favor or against. My guess is that the issue isn't going away, and wll remain a wedge issue for a long time, much the same way abortion has, even after Roe v. Wade in 1973.
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