GOP Congressman Attends Gay Son's Wedding Days after Vote Against Marriage Rights

So much for "family values."

A GOP congressman voted against a bill that would shore up marriage rights for people like his own gay son... and then attended his son's same-sex wedding a few days later, NBC News reports.

"The gay son of Rep. Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., confirmed to NBC News on Monday that he 'married the love of [his] life' on Friday and that his 'father was there,' " the outlet detailed.

"NBC News is not publishing the names of the grooms, neither of whom is a public figure," the article added.

According to Rep. Thompson's press secretary, "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 press secretary told NBC News that Rep. Thompson and his wife were " 'very happy' to welcome their new son-in-law 'into their family,' " the article added.

As previously reported at EDGE, the House overwhelmingly approved the Respect for Marriage Act on a bipartisan basis on July 19, with 47 GOP members of Congress joining their Democratic peers in seeking to bolster the marriage rights of gay and lesbian families.

Rep. Thompson, however, was not among the 47 GOP members of the House who voted in favor of the bill, despite his son's then-impending nuptials. Thompson shrugged aside the seeming incongruity by labeling the bill "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," NBC News relayed.

Though the bill has been introduced numerous time in slightly different forms since 2009, the latest version was spurred by the Supreme Court's overturning of its own 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade, which made abortion legal. Members of the Court's conservative majority that the Court might entertain abolishing other previously-affirmed rights and liberties, sparking worry that marriage equality could soon follow abortion rights in being rescinded by the Court.

The passage of the Respect for Marriage Act would help protect gay and lesbian families against the Supreme Court by repealing the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, a federal law that reserved legal marriage as a special right for heterosexual couples. The bill would also protect interracial couples should the Court decide to overturn an even longer-standing example of settled law, 1967's Loving v. Virginia.

In order to become law, the Respect for Marriage Act needs to pass the Senate, which, unlike the House – which is solidly in the hands of Democrats – is evenly divided, meaning at least 10 Republicans in that chamber will need to join with all 50 Democrats in order to ensure the law's passage. So far, only five Republicans have indicated definite support for the measure, despite majorities of both Democratic and Republican Americans approving of legal marriage for same-sex couples.