House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been branded a hypocrite for attending the lavish wedding of billionaire oil heiress Ivy Getty over the weekend without a mask — while children in California are being made to wear them in the state’s schools.
Pelosi (D-Calif.), who officiated the ceremony at San Francisco City Hall, faced backlash on social media after photos of her mingling with other maskless wedding guests were published by Vogue on Tuesday.
Critics immediately lashed out and questioned why it was mandatory for children to wear masks in California schools, but not for guests at the billionaire wedding of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty’s great-granddaughter and Tobias Alexander Engel.
“Why does @SpeakerPelosi insist on children wearing masks when she’s in more danger due to her age? Seems like she’s not concerned, why are you?” one person tweeted.
Another said: “Why is Nancy Pelosi allowed to attend a lavish billionaire’s wedding in California without a mask while our school children are forced to mask up? Is it only the servant class who is forced to wear masks?”
The Reopen California Schools group said children had to keep their masks on in some San Francsico schools during outside breaks.
“And why were guests able to do this? Maskless indoors when school dances across California are cancelled and kids must keep masks on 7 hours/day including outside at recess in many parts of CA including in SF,” they tweeted.
Others called for mask mandates to be dropped in schools in the wake of the maskless nuptials.
“Can we please drop the mask mandates for schoolchildren and everybody else now? Witness the hypocrisy of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi,” one Twitter user wrote.
According to Vogue, guests — who were required to be vaccinated — had been asked to put their masks on when Pelosi entered City Hall.
In the photos published in the days after the wedding, Pelosi could be seen in the middle of a crowd without a mask.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom and San Francisco Mayor London Breed also attended the wedding.
Currently, all students and teachers across the state are required to wear masks in schools under Newsom’s mandate, which was brought into effect when in-person classes resumed in August and September.
Two students – Drew and Victoria Nelson — were ordered to stay away from their high school in Temecula back in August after they refused to wear masks.
“They were sent home and told not to come back with or without a mask,” their father, Gary Nelson, told NBC News at the time.
“If they do, they would be charged with trespassing.”
The mandate has proven controversial across the state, with thousands of parents in San Diego filing a lawsuit this week asking for an injunction that would stop officials from forcing children to wear masks.
Even as children get vaccinated, California health officials have so far refused to say when the mask mandate could end.