Buttigieg overstates Vance’s views on gay marriage

In back-to-back interviews on CNN’s "State of the Union," Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg contradicted each other when asked about Vance’s views of gay marriage.

During the Aug. 11 broadcast, host Dana Bash asked Vance his thoughts on Buttigieg's family, which includes Buttigieg’s husband and adopted twins: "Do you recognize them as parents and, more broadly, as being part of families?"

"Well, of course I do, Dana," Vance said.

Bash then invited Buttigieg on-air and asked him to respond to Vance’s statements.

"When you asked him and pressed him on whether my family was legitimate, he said yes because I think he kind of felt shamed into it," Buttigieg said. "Last time I checked, he doesn't even think I should legally be able to have a family."

Buttigieg then said Vance holds "anti-marriage equality views." 

It’s been nearly a decade since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution guarantees the right to same-sex marriage. But LGBTQ+ advocates fear gay marriage’s future is not assured.

However, saying Vance is "anti-marriage equality" doesn't give a full picture. Vance opposed a 2022 federal law that recognized same-sex marriages. He has also voiced acceptance of gay marriage being legal, calling it "the law of the land" and saying he wasn’t doing anything to try to change that. 

The Transportation Department did not respond to our request for comment from Buttigieg, but, when asked for Buttigieg’s evidence, a spokesperson for Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign pointed us to 2022 campaign trail comments Vance made against the Respect for Marriage Act. 

The act, signed into law in December 2022, requires all states recognize the legality of same-sex marriages — legislative protections that could hold should the 2015 Supreme Court precedent that legalized gay marriage be overturned. Congress took up the issue after  Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas called the 2015 ruling on gay marriage "demonstrably erroneous" and advocated it be revoked using the same rationale that the court used in revoking federally protected abortion access.

During an Oct. 10, 2022, televised Senate race debate between Vance and Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, Vance said he opposed the Respect for Marriage Act, then pending before Congress. 

"I don't think it's actually about gay marriage, it is not about same-sex marriage or same-sex equality," Vance said. "Look, gay marriage is the law of the land in this country. And I'm not trying to do anything to change that." He said he opposed the bill because he thought it would make it easier for the government and others to sue religious organizations that "don’t comply with the dictates of the federal government."

Vance’s team declined PolitiFact’s request for comment on Vance’s current same-sex marriage equality position. A 2022 Cleveland Plain Dealer story said that when asked about gay marriage, Vance, who is Catholic, had "pointed to the position of the Catholic church, which officially opposes it."

In his memoir, "Hillbilly Elegy," Vance wrote about his exposure to antigay religious sentiment and described being friends with gay people. But he did not specifically weigh in on gay marriage.

PolitiFact could not independently find any specific statements that Vance has made about the church’s position.

Vance’s stance on the Respect for Marriage Act came up frequently during his Senate run.

In July 2022, the Christian nonprofit Mission: America reported that Vance had said he would vote "no" on the bill, citing concerns about religious liberty. 

In August 2022, in comments to reporters who asked him about the bill, Vance called it a "distraction."

"You have a sky-high inflation crisis, you have a huge recessionary problem, and we're arguing about rights that have already been granted by the Supreme Court," he said. "It seems like a bizarre distraction for a country that actually has much, much deeper and more serious crises."

The Respect for Marriage Act passed the House on Aug. 19, 2022, and was sent to the Senate, where religious liberty protections were added, earning the bill bipartisan support. Some conservative legal organizations, such as the Alliance Defending Freedom, still opposed the legislation finding the protections insufficient. 

In his October debate with Ryan, Vance again said he continued to oppose the act.

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President Joe Biden signed the law Dec. 13, 2022, before Vance took office.  

As senator, Vance introduced proposals to restrict gender-affirming health care for youth and prohibit the use of the "X" gender designation, as opposed to "M" or "F," on passports. Nonbinary people often use the "X." Neither bill has made it out of committee.

Since becoming the Republican vice presidential candidate, Vance’s political opponents have scrutinized Vance’s views on American families, and resurfaced statements he made in 2021, including to the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson. In these interviews, Vance said people with children have more of a political stake in the nation’s future than those who do not and lamented that the U.S. was being run by "a bunch of childless cat ladies."

"The entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children," Vance said on Carlson’s July 29, 2021, show, citing Buttigieg and Harris as examples. "How does it make any sense that we have turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it. … Maybe if we want a healthy ruling class in this country, we should invest more, we should vote more, we should support more people who actually have kids, because those are the people who ultimately have a more direct stake in our future."

Vance has responded to the criticism by saying his comments were taken out of context.

On Aug. 11, following the CNN segment, CBS News’ "Face the Nation" host Margaret Brennan asked Vance whether his proposal for a new childcare policy would include gay families. Vance said, "All families would be included, of course all families would be included."  

Trump and the Republican Party more broadly have quieted their opposition to gay marriage. 

Before his presidency, Trump said in interviews that he supported "traditional marriage." But, following the Supreme Court’s legalization, he described the issue as "settled." The recently released 2024 Republican party platform also removed a 2016 condemnation of same-sex marriage legalization, but states an aim to "promote a Culture that values the Sanctity of Marriage, the blessings of childhood, the foundational role of families, and supports working parents."

Buttigieg claimed that Vance holds "anti-marriage equality views."

As he campaigned for his Ohio Senate seat in 2022, Vance said he would not support a bill that would federally legalize same-sex marriage. He cited concerns about religious liberty and described the bill as a "distraction," given that the Supreme Court has already granted same-sex marriage rights.

But Vance did say during a debate that "gay marriage is the law of the land in this country. And I'm not trying to do anything to change that."

Vance’s campaign did not clarify his current views on marriage equality. But comments in recent interviews signal that Vance recognizes families with gay parents. The Republican Party has removed from its 2024 platform its 2016 condemnation of same-sex marriage.

The statement is partially accurate but omits important details or takes things out of context. We rate it Half True.