Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, a Republican, on Tuesday said he knew that his son Alex Walker acted as a witness at the wedding of a gay relative.

“He was at a family member's event,” Walker said of this 19-year-old son's participation. “This was not a policy statement on his behalf. This was something where he was with a family member. This is a family member we love dearly.”

On June 6, a federal judge struck down Wisconsin's 2006 voter-approved constitutional amendment limiting marriage to heterosexual couples. Hundreds of gay and lesbian couples tied the knot in the week before the judge put the order on hold pending an appeal.

Alex Walker was one of the two adult witnesses to the June 9 wedding of Shelli Marquardt and Cathy Priem. Marquardt is the first cousin of Walker's wife, Tonette.

“He doesn't need my blessing to do anything he does,” Walker, an opponent of marriage equality, said of his son.