U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) last week attempted to appear supportive of LGBTQ people, but on Tuesday he was one of 157 Republicans voting against protecting existing same-sex marriages should the Supreme Court overturn its own 2015 Obergefell ruling.
During a House Judiciary Committee hearing Friday on abortion Congresssman Gaetz told the legal director for the Human Rights Campaign he believes “families are defined by love.” He went on to boast about his support for helping end Florida’s ban on same-sex couples adopting children, although that reportedly “came a few years after the Third District Court of Appeals found Florida’s decades-old ban on same-sex couples adopting unconstitutional.”
Gaetz served up his remarks to support his belief, which he promoted during that hearing, that lesbians who are raped should give birth to their rapist’s baby so same-sex couples will have children available to adopt — ignoring the 400,000 children who on any given day are in America’s foster care system.
Tuesday, in one of the most-watched congressional votes in recent months, Gaetz voted against the Respect for Marriage Act, which was drafted to protect the existing marriages of same-sex couples at the state level and require those marriages to be recognized at the federal level.
Defending his vote Gaetz Tuesday evening took to Twitter and declared, wrongly, “In a fit of hysteria triggered by one sentence in a concurring opinion by Justice Thomas, Democrats have moved to introduce a bill codifying Obergefell v. Hodges.”
The Respect for Marriage Act does not codify that ruling, and Republican lawmakers like Sen. Ted Cruz, along with conservative activists have set their sights on overturning the same-sex marriage ruling, with some hoping to make same-sex relations illegal once again.
Tuesday’s vote was 267-157. Every Democrat voted yes, as did 49 House Republicans.
You can see how every House member voted here: