GOP Rep. Glenn Thompson attended son's same-sex wedding days after opposing marriage equality bill
Washington — Days after voting against legislation last week that would protect marriage equality, Rep. Glenn Thompson, a Republican from Pennsylvania, attended his son's wedding to another man.
"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," Maddison Stone, Thompson's press secretary, told CBS News in an email. "The Thompsons are very happy to welcome their new son-in-law into their family."
Thompson was among the 157 Republicans in the House who opposed the Respect for Marriage Act, which, if enacted, would repeal the Clinton-era Defense of Marriage Act, require states to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states, and provide additional federal protections for same-sex and interracial couples. NBC News earlier reported Thompson's attendance at his son's wedding.
The measure passed the House in a bipartisan vote — 47 Republicans supported the bill — last week and could win enough backing from Senate Republicans to overcome a filibuster and advance in the evenly split upper chamber, though its fate remains unclear.
The Supreme Court in 2015 said the Constitution guarantees the right to same-sex marriage, but House Democrats moved to enshrine marriage equality into federal law in the wake of the high court's decision last month that dismantled the constitutional right to an abortion established under Roe v. Wade.
In a concurring opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas called on the Supreme Court to reconsider its decisions involving access to contraception and same-sex marriages, which relied on the same legal rationale as Roe, raising concerns among Democrats that those rights could be next to come under threat by the court's 6-3 conservative majority.
While no other justice joined Thomas's opinion, and Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the majority, stressed the opinion should not be read to "cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion," Democrats moved swiftly to answer the court's conservative justices with bills protecting access to birth control and marriage equality.
Some Republicans, though, have criticized the Respect for Marriage Act as unnecessary and an issue that should be left to the states.
Stone, Thompson's press secretary, told the Centre Daily Times in an email last week that the bill was an election-year "messaging stunt" for Democrats "who have failed to address historic inflation and out of control prices at gas pumps and grocery stores."