A politician went to his gay son’s wedding just three days after he voted against a same-sex marriage bill.
US Republican Glenn Thompson celebrated at his son’s wedding as he married another man on Friday last week.
The Pennsylvania politician did this just days after he wielded his legislative power to try and stop a bill that would codify federal protections for same-sex marriages on the Tuesday.
The bipartisan bill would have protected marriages like his son’s should the Supreme Court overturn its previous ruling legalising gay marriage.
This comes after the Supreme Court repealed the landmark Roe vs Wade ruling that made abortion legal in the US, leading to them being banned in over a dozen states.
Thompson was one of 157 House Republicans who voted against the Respect for Marriage Act on Tuesday last week.
Despite his efforts to limit the freedoms of the LGBTQ+ community, thanks to the support of 47 GOP members, it passed the lower chamber.
In a statement about the incident, his spokesperson Maddison Stone told media: “Congressman and Mrs Thompson were thrilled to attend and celebrate their son’s marriage on Friday night as he began this new chapter in his life.
“The Thompsons are very happy to welcome their new son-in-law into their family.”
Speaking last week Stone added that the legislation was “nothing more than an election year messaging stunt for Democrats in Congress who have failed to address historic inflation and out of control prices at gas pumps and grocery stores” in a statement to the local newspaper, Centre Daily.
The Respect for Marriage Act now faces a vote in the Senate and needs at least ten Republicans to back it along with all 50 Democrats to be enshrined in law.
If passed the act would repeal the definition of marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman and open it up to same-sex couples.
Democrat legislators introduced the bill amid fears the conservative-majority Supreme Court would overturn the decision it took in 2015.
This ruling seven years ago declared that state laws barring same-sex marriage was unconstitutional and it legalised gay marriage across the US.
But conservative court judge Justice Clarence Thomas called the security of US LGBTQ+ rights into question when he said the judge should reconsider the landmark ruling.
However, despite the increasingly conservative leanings of the GOP and Supreme Court judges, the majority of Americans support same-sex marriage.
According to a Gallup poll published last month more Americans than ever, 71 per cent, believe marriages between couples of the same-sex should be enshrined in law.
