He voted against marriage equality. Then went to his son's gay wedding.

Shameless MAGA Pennsylvania Rep. Glenn Thompson exposed as "family values" hypocrite.

As I wrote last week, marriage equality is now an issue for the 2022 election, after Democrats in the House put the GOP on the spot, forcing Republicans to vote on the Respect For Marriage Act, which would protect interracial marriage and repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, a law that is still on the books even though the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional in 2013.

The bill would federally protect same-sex marriage should the Supreme Court overturn Obergefell, as Justice Clarence Thomas pined for in his concurring opinion when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Now Republicans in the Senate are running for cover, thrown into chaos. Wisconsin’s Senator Ron Johnson, in a tough re-election campaign, now says he’ll vote for it. We could actually see it pass the Senate — and yes, Democrats better bring it to a vote.

I noted it was a win-win if it passes, since all who voted against it would have it used against them in the fall, including Senator Marco Rubio, who is doubling down on voting against it, making vile and insulting comments about Democratic “marxist misfits” and “elite liberals.”

And if it doesn’t pass the Senate, it’s still a vote to use against the GOP, caught between their base and the larger electorate. The 47 House Republicans who voted for it will face an angry MAGA base for voting for it. But those who voted against it will be targeted by Democrats as extremists. Some of them are in races Democrats can win, even as some are in solid red districts.

And that brings us to Rep. Glenn Thompson of Pennsylvania, a hard-core Big Lie-supporting MAGA Republican who voted against certification of the 2020 election and signed the Texas amicus brief which asked the Supreme Court to overturn the election. He voted against the Respect for Marriage Act, calling it a Democratic “messaging” bill. And then just days later, over the weekend, he attended his own son’s same-sex wedding. Gawker first reported on it, and NBC followed up:

A Republican lawmaker attended his gay son’s wedding just three days after joining the majority of his GOP colleagues in voting against a House bill that would codify federal protections for same-sex marriage.

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

Thompson’s press secretary, Maddison Stone, also confirmed the congressman was in attendance. 

“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,” Stone said in an email, adding that the Thompsons are “very happy” to welcome their new son-in-law “into their family.”

Fifty Shades of Whey @davenewworld_2

This fascist is Glenn Thompson, a GOP congressman from Pennsylvania who voted against gay marriage and then attended his son's wedding to a man 3 days later.

This is the most grotesque kind of hypocrisy — in which someone votes against their own family, so immersed in the MAGA cult of authoritarianism. Thompson, marinating in the rabid GOP base, decided he’d just vote against his own son. Then he goes to the wedding, as if nothing happened, to celebrate his son’s happy day. It reeks of arrogance and privilege because he thinks he and his family will be spared in the totalitarian takeover that they are helping to facilitate.

People have suffered for many years, gay and lesbian couples who saw their assets taken away upon the death of one spouse, shunned by the deceased spouse’s family members who didn’t “condone” their “lifestyle.” They’ve seen their children ripped from them, and they’ve lived through government deeming them second class citizens.

Many lost Social Security and health care and veterans’ benefits, protection under immigration law — families ripped apart, with one spouse ejected from the country — and in bankruptcy cases. Their physical health suffered, their lives were thrown into turmoil, and some were thrust into poverty. Many lost their homes after a spouse had died.

And so many of these people fought for marriage equality. I think of Edie Windsor, who took the case to the Supreme Court when she was forced to pay a massive tax upon receiving inheritance after her spouse died, and got the Defense of Marriage Act ruled unconstitutional.

So for Thompson to vote against protecting all of those couples and his own son from the same kind of harm and suffering is the height of callousness and doublespeak.

His district is rated as solid Republican by the Cook Political Report, but Democrats must nonetheless use this to underscore not only his hypocrisy but his extremism — that he would vote against his own son. Even if it doesn’t upend him it helps Democrats to run on an issue of decency and morality and expose the GOP, which can only have a good effect elsewhere. And, in every race, even the most solid for an incumbent, gaffes can happen, headwinds can change. We’ve seen crazier things occur.

The point is, Democrats have to be ready and hit him hard no matter what. Thompson should be forced to answer to this as it currently blows up in the media, made to defend an indefensible vote and expose himself as anything but someone who supports “family values.”