Former President George H.W. Bush a witness at same-sex wedding in Maine

Former President George H.W. Bush was an official witness at the same-sex wedding of two longtime friends, according to an ABC News report.

Bush and his wife, Barbara Bush, attended the ceremony for Bonnie Clement and Helen Thorgalsen on Sept. 21, spokesman Jim McGrath told ABC News. The former president signed the marriage license as a witness.

The AP reported that Bush was seated in a wheelchair, with a stack of papers on his lap and his left hand poised with a pen in a photograph of the occasion. One bright red sock and one bright blue one peek out below the cuffs of his blue slacks.

The 41st president has deep ties to the area where Thorgalsen and Clement own a general store called HB Provisions.

“This has been a wonderful wedding experience for us and we were honored to have President and Mrs. Bush not only in attendance but also happy to sign our license,” Thorgalsen, who is with her wife on their honeymoon in London, told ABC News.

“As Nancy Sosa, our officiant, said, ‘God did not make a love that is wrong.’ If we can make a difference in the world with our wedding and marriage, we are thrilled,” she added, according to the ABC news report.

One of Bush’s sons, former President George W. Bush, opposed same-sex marriage and in 2004 announced his support for a proposed federal constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman. His wife, Laura Bush, and their daughter Barbara Bush support gay marriage, as does his former vice president, Dick Cheney.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, considered a potential presidential candidate in 2016, has said same-sex marriage is an issue best left to the states to decide.

PHOTO: Former President George H.W. Bush at the wedding of Helen Thorgalsen and Bonnie Clement. Courtesy: Facebook/Helen Thorgalsen