Rubio: I'd attend a gay wedding

Marco Rubio says he would attend the wedding of a same-sex couple, even though the Republican Florida senator and newly minted presidential candidate has said he believes marriage should only be between a man and a woman.

Fusion host Jorge Ramos pressed Rubio on Wednesday about whether he would go to the same-sex ceremony of someone in his family or someone on his staff who happens to be gay.

“If there’s somebody that I love that’s in my life, I don’t necessarily have to agree with their decisions or the decisions they’ve made to continue to love them and participate in important events,” he told Ramos.

The senator said he would not hurt that person simply because he disagrees with what they have decided to do.

“Ultimately, if someone that you care for and is part of your family has decided to move in one direction or another or feels that way because of who they love, you respect that because you love them,” he said.

Rubio, who is Catholic, added that it is akin to attending “second marriages” after divorce, which are not exactly encouraged in the Catholic Church.

“If someone gets divorced, I’m not going to stop loving them or having them a part of our lives,” he said.

The Florida senator has expressed support for states’ religious freedom restoration acts — like the law recently passed in Indiana — but told NPR’s Steve Inskeep this week that there is a difference between not providing services to someone because of their identity and choosing not to participate in a same-sex wedding.

“The difference here is, we’re not talking about discriminating against a person because of who they are, we’re talking about someone who’s saying — what I’m talking about, anyway, is someone who’s saying, ‘I just don’t want to participate as a vendor for an event, a specific event that violates the tenets of my faith’,” he said in the NPR interview.