Pence Extreme Against LGBT and this is How
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| If you ask Pence about this quote he will talk your ear off until you forget the question but he will not go there |
When the issue of abortion came up during the first vice presidential debate Tuesday night, Republican nominee Donald Trump's running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, gave an impassioned answer about why he's pro-life.
"For me, the sanctity of life proceeds out of the belief, that ancient principle where God says 'before you were formed in the womb, I knew you,'" Pence said of how his faith shaped his anti-abortion views. "A society can be judged by how it deals with its most vulnerable: the aged, the infirm, the disabled and the unborn."
Many who were watching the debate quickly picked up on Pence's use of the phrase "sanctity of life" and compare it to his political beliefs and policies they pointing in the opposite direction.
Pence doesn't seem to really care about the "sanctity" of all lives — especially LGBTQ people, the poor and refugees.
In 2015, Pence signed into a law a bill that would allow Indiana business owners to deny service to LGBTQ customers. He also once advocated for conversion therapy, a practice that is considered harmful by most medical and psychological organizations.
Pence's war to protect unborn fetuses also had a very real consequence on the rural poor in Indiana, many of whom relied on Planned Parenthood. After gutting funding for the organization, parts of rural Indiana were left without easily accessible resources for HIV prevention, counseling and testing, leading to an outbreak, as the Chicago Tribune reported.
Following the terrorist attacks in Paris, Pence said that Indiana would notresettle Syrian refugees, saying "Indiana has a long tradition of opening our arms and homes to refugees from around the world but, as governor, my first responsibility is to ensure the safety and security of all Hoosiers."
Pence, however, does not have the authority to make such a call, according to a federal court ruling.
Pence is also a staunch supporter of the death penalty, something that more than half of Americans no longer support.
Pence may seem more level-headed than Trump, but many of his views are extreme.
While Pence may seem to be a good foil to Trump’s brash and bombastic demeanor, he has a history of extreme viewpoints and policy decisions, which one can argue is actually worse than Trump's say-anything approach.
Here are some of the statements and positions Pence had has related to LGBT issues:
He said gay couples signaled ‘societal collapse’
In 2006, as head of the Republican Study Committee, a group of the 100 most-conservative House members, Pence rose in support of a constitutional amendment that would have defined marriage as between a man and a woman. Citing a Harvard researcher, Pence said in his speech, “societal collapse was always brought about following an advent of the deterioration of marriage and family.” Pence also called being gay a choice and said keeping gays from marrying was not discrimination, but an enforcement of “God’s idea.”
He opposed a law that would prohibit discrimination against LGBT people in the workplace
The Employment Non-Discrimination Act would have banned discrimination against people based on sexual orientation. Pence voted against that law in 2007 and later said the law “wages war on freedom and religion in the workplace.”
More than 20 years after the bill was first introduced, the Senate approved the proposal in 2013, but the bill failed in the House.
He opposed the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
Pence favored the longtime military policy of not letting soldiers openly identify as gay. In 2010, Pence told CNN he did not want to see the military become “a backdrop for social experimentation.” The policy ended in 2011.
He rejected the Obama administration directive on transgender bathrooms
In May, the federal government directed school districts to allow students to use the bathroom of the gender they identify with. The directive came as criticism crescendoed around a North Carolina law that would have restricted the use of bathrooms.
Along with many other conservatives, Pence opposed Obama’s directive and said it was a state issue. “The federal government has not business getting involved in issues of this nature,” Pence said. [ TIME ]
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