Mehmet Oz, the Republican candidate for US Senate in Pennsylvania, took his campaign this week to a venue in Elizabethtown that does not allow same-sex marriages.
Dr Oz has stated that he supports the right of same-sex couples to marry and, if elected, would support legislation ensuring that preservation of that right no matter what happens at the US Supreme Court.
But that didn’t stop him from appearing at the Stone Gables Estate in Elizabethtown, a wedding venue in Lancaster County that says on its website that it “provide[s] marriage-related services as ordained by God’s Word, the Holy Bible, that are consistent with the written truth that marriage is the union of one man and one woman.”
The Washington Post first reported on Mr Oz’s appearance at the venue. The story was quickly picked up by the campaign of Dr Oz’s Democratic opponent John Fetterman, who tweeted a link a story about the rally.
“In 2013, I was actually the first elected official in Western PA to solemnize same-sex weddings,” Mr Fetterman tweeted. “I knew that I was on the right side of history – even back then. And unlike Dr. Oz, I’m still proudly on the right side of history now.”
Dr Oz tweeted in September that he “believe[s] that same-sex couples should have the same freedom to get married as straight couples,” but he has throughout his career in television and politics taken positions that contradict that stance.
Mr Oz produced an episode of his television show about conversion therapy in 2012, then reportedly scrubbed it from the show’s website during the campaign.
“Dr. Oz hosts a discussion about reparative therapy,” the episode description reads. “Find out what it is and what the experts have to say. Then, Dr. Oz investigates what happens during reparative therapy. Watch and see what goes in a reparative therapy retreat.”
That same year, Dr Oz wrote in a blog post that “the debate continues” over the merits of a proposed conversion therapy law in California. Conversion therapy is widely considered by medical professionals to be a pseudoscientific practice that causes immense psychological harm to LGBT+ people.
Mr Fetterman and Dr Oz have heatedly contested one of the most expensive and closely watched Senate races in the country this year.
Mr Fetterman led in polls throughout the summer, relentlessly attacking Dr Oz as an out-of-touch carpetbagger, but Dr Oz has closed the polling gap in recent weeks. The elections forecaster FiveThirtyEight currently gives Mr Fetterman better odds of winning the race, which it rates as a “dead heat.”
