Is Charlie Dent Backing LGBT Equality Yet? Check Back In 20 Years

Charlie Dent was first elected to Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley congressional seat (PA-15) in 2004, a D+2 district that had given both Gore and Kerry the narrowest of victories. Dent took the seat when incumbent Rick Santorum ran for the Senate. The district was gerrymandered by the Republican state legislature in 2010 and is now an R+2 district that includes red-leaning parts of Berks, Lebanon and and Dauphin counties. Obama beat McCain 52-47% in 2008 and after the gerrymander the district gave the edge to Romney, 51-48%. Dent has never broken 60% in any of his reelection campaigns, although the DCCC has never really targeted him, despite his obvious vulnerabilities. Local Democrats have just given up and say they will wait until Pelosi replaces Steve Israel with a serious DCCC Chair before anyone runs. This year, despite being in one of the most winnable Republican-held seats in the country, Dent has no opponent. Steve Israel, take a bow.

Yesterday, a Republican Party thought-leader, religious fanatic and Family Research Council president Tony Perkins told a radio talk show host that marriage equality for the LGBT community "is literally about the entire culture: it’s about the rule of law, it’s about the country, it’s about our future, it’s about redefining the curriculum in our schools, it’s about driving a wedge between parent and child, it’s about the loss of religious freedom, it’s about the inability to be who we are as a people" and "sowing the seeds of the disillusion of our republic." Threateningly, he warned that the LGBT community, in insisting on equality, is "going to push Christians to a point where they’re not going to be pushed anymore and I think we’re very quickly coming to that point."

Most Americans don't see it the same way Perkins and other GOP hate mongers, bigot and crackpots see it. This week a new Gallup poll shows an all-time high for acceptance of gay marriage. They reported that "Americans' support for the law recognizing same-sex marriages as legally valid has increased yet again, now at 55%."

When Gallup first asked Americans this question about same-sex marriage in 1996, 68% were opposed to recognizing marriage between two men or two women, with slightly more than a quarter supporting it (27%). Since then, support has steadily grown, reaching 42% by 2004 when Massachusetts became the first state to legalize it-- a milestone that reached its 10th anniversary this month.

In 2011, support for gay marriage vaulted over the 50% mark for the first time, and since 2012, support has remained above that level. In the last year, however, support has leveled off a bit. Currently, 17 states and the District of Columbia have legalized same-sex marriage, while several states wait in legal limbo as they appeal judge rulings overturning state bans.

Among the most dramatic divisions in opinion on the issue are between age groups. As has been the case in the past, support for marriage equality is higher among younger Americans; the older an American is, the less likely he or she is to support marriage for same-sex couples. Currently, adults between the ages of 18 and 29 are nearly twice as likely to support marriage equality as adults aged of 65 and older.

Opinions also differ dramatically along party lines. Democrats (74%) are far more likely to support gay marriage as Republicans are (30%), while independents (58%) are more in line with the national average. Though Republicans still lag behind in their support of same-sex marriage, they have nearly doubled their support for it since Gallup began polling on the question in 1996… The South (48%) is the only region where same-sex marriage support falls below the 50% mark. Support is highest in the East, where two-thirds (67%) of residents support gay marriage.

PA-15 is in the East, not the South. But Dent, despite his loud protestations that he's a "moderate" or at least "mainstream," has a ProgressivePunch lifetime crucial vote score on LGBT issues of zero. Not all Republicans do. Justin Amash (MI), Richard Hanna (NY), Jason Chaffetz (UT) Tom McClintock (CA), John Campbell (CA), Mario Diaz-Balart (FL), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL), Jimmy Duncan (TN) and Jim Sensebrenner (WI) have all taken occasional principled votes on behalf of LGBT equality. Dent has never. But that may be about to change. No, he don't suddenly find out he has a gay son. But he seems to have figured out that gays and their families and friends in Bethlehem and Allentown vote.

When a federal judge in Pennsylvania on Tuesday ruled that the state's ban on same sex marriage was unconstitutional-- a ban Dent voted for as a state representative in 1996-- Dent gave a statement to the Patriot-News in Harrisburg congratulating gay couples. It was a statement that easily could be interpreted as Dent giving his blessing.

Dent's name was immediately added to a Wikipedia page listing supporters of same-sex marriage. And the Freedom to Marry blasted this message on its Facebook page:

Talk is cheap-- Facebook is too

But Dent said Thursday he's not quite there yet, although he strongly suggested that he will be making his support official soon.

"I will have more to say about marriage equality in the near future.... Now that the judge ruled, it caused me to reconsider my views on the matter," he said. "In 1996, when I voted for the Pennsylvania Defense of Marriage of Act, it felt appropriate at the time ... but clearly times have changed, attitudes and perspectives have evolved, and I understand that."

Dent said he wasn't prepared with a thoughtful statement this week and needed a little more time to craft it.

Though the pendulum of public support for same sex marriage has swung dramatically in the last several years, only a few GOP members of Congress are openly in favor of it. Dent will join a small club that includes Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Rep. Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.) and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R–Fla.).

But the politics are turning at whiplash speed. As colleague Wesley Lowery wrote this weekend, there are three openly gay GOP candidates running for Congress this year.

“The fact that the three of us can run for Congress as serious candidates says an awful lot about where we are today as a party,” said Dan Innis, campaigning in New Hampshire.

Dent, who is running unopposed this midterm election, seemed to agree.

"In 20 years, we'll be asking what all the fuss was about," he said.

Perhaps if the DCCC were running a candidate against Dent in his R+2 district, instead of running Jennifer Garrison, a virulent bigot and homophobe, in OH-06 a few miles down Interstate 76/70 in an unwinnable R+8 district, Dent wouldn't be chuckling about what he sees happening 20 years from now.