Virginia Representative Denver Riggleman is dealing with pushback from his political peers after he supported a gay wedding.
In July, the Republican representative officiated a same-sex wedding in his district. Riggleman agreed to officiate the wedding because the grooms, Anthony LeCounte and Alex Pisciarino, are former friends and campaign volunteers.
“My real belief is that government shouldn’t be involved in marriage at all, but if it is, everybody has to be treated equally before the law,” he told The Washington Post. “And that is part of our Republican creed. And it also comes down to love is love. I’m happy to join two people together who obviously love each other.”
Unfortunately for Riggleman, this then made him enemy number one to his political peers and former allies. The Cumberland County Republican Committee unanimously passed a motion of no confidence in Riggleman on Monday.
“I make this motion of no confidence in Congressman Denver Riggleman for his recent act in officiating a homosexual marriage and his lack of support for stronger border security and immigration policies,” the motion read.
In addition, the committee tried to censure him this past Saturday, according to the Roanoke Times.
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Diana Shores, the chairwoman of the committee, released a statement through NBC News saying that Riggleman officiating the wedding “contradicted his promises to represent the district.”
“Mr. Riggleman, who claims to want government out of marriage, acted as an elected official to perform a marriage,” she said. “Then, he made it clear in the communications that followed to the leadership of the district that he didn’t care what we thought about the actions. Each district committee can decide if they have further confidence in Congressman Riggleman representing their values. As for me, he doesn’t represent mine.”
But who does Riggleman support? Because he doesn’t truly support LGBTQ issues either. While Riggleman may be pro-gay marriage, he voted against the Equality Act that could have protected LGBTQ people from discrimination. In addition, Riggleman voted in support of Trump’s trans military ban.
But despite this attack from his own peers and former allies, Riggleman has refused to criticize the committee. Instead, he released a statement simply saying that he was happy to do the wedding and support his friends.
Source: The Washington Post, NBC News, The Roanoke Times
