In 2017, The New Yorker published a damning profile on Mike Pence in which Trump “jokingly” said Pence wants to “hang all the gays.” That inspired readers to go dig in the Internet’s dirt in search of Pence’s other past offenses towards the LGBTQ community — not that you have to dig too deep.
As the head of the Indiana Policy Review in the 1990s, Pence published numerous articles urging employers not to hire gay people, compulsively churning out copy like this:
“Homosexuals are not as a group able-bodied. They are known to carry extremely high rates of disease brought on because of the nature of their sexual practices and the promiscuity which is a hallmark of their lifestyle.”
In that article — which you can read here — he also suggests homosexuality is a “pathological condition.”
Related: Mike Pence just tried to revise his history on HIV and conversion therapy — here’s the real story
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In Pence’s ideal world, there would be zero protections for the LGBTQ community, a point he made clear by complaining about the passage of the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Bill.
As we reported last year, he groused when the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes bill was signed into law in 2009.
Related: That time Donald Trump joked Mike Pence wants to ‘hang all the gays’
Pence didn’t cite legal objections, either. Instead, he complained that it advanced a “radical social agenda” and would have “a chilling effect on religious expression, from the pulpits, in our temples, in our mosques and in our churches.”
Of course, in Congress Pence voted against federal workplace protections. What was unique was his reasoning, which was that ENDA would discriminate against Christians. To comply with the law, Pence claimed, “the employer has to ban employees from having a Bible at the workplace for their break time, or displaying Bible verses.” Foreshadowing the Indiana religious liberty law, he went on: “We must stand for the right of every American to practice their faith according to the dictates of their conscience, whether it be in the public square or in the workplace.”
DCguy
Well well well, no articles from the anti-lgbt troll Mo bro or his many screenames trying to distract attention from this topic by screaming out “HILLARY” or “OBAMA”.
Maybe even professional GOP trolls realize that this is something it’s better to shut up about and hope the media forgets about it.
The guy, Pence has massive amounts of violent baggage, wants to do harm to lgbts, and wrecked his states economy just to try to hurt lgbts.
Dstout
As being a member of the LGBT community and also a hard working man, what he says about “not being able bodied” is absolutely ridiculous! I’ve worked my entire life and also know many other that work their asses off too because there’s no way to move forward if you just sit there and wait for things to happen. We’re all individuals with strengths and weaknesses, him grouping and stamping us with “do not hire” will be something he will regret. As far as Trump goes “hanging all gays” is super racist and offensive! That’s like saying “let’s hang all the African Americans” or “kill the Jews”… like I do not get the context in which any of those statements are in the slightest bit humorous! And for a US leader to say that and brush it off like it’s nothing is super disgusting, disrespectful and disappointing. Not ok in any way shap or form!!!
Impeach his ass and lock Pence up for life!!! But that’s just my opinion! ?
Celtic
It has been noted in various reports that Pence is a closet queer in denial. Photos of Pence as a young gay man have been floated across the web, with his sweet bikini briefs leaning next to another lad clad in similar fashion. Pence’s ilk is the worst of the worst. By persecuting others who are in fact just like him, he believes his demons will be kept in their mentally ceremonial tomb.
tham
They’re not GOP bots, they are straight up Russians. I know, I know, basically the same thing now with Trump.
Chuck
I found a great way to shut those people up. Just ask them if they have seen any of the you tube videos showing Donald Trump, little Trump Jr., and Eric all talking about their connections with Russia.
I also like CNN’s new ad with the ” Apple”. Lets see if Donald Trump can wrap his little hands around that.
Ellie533
Pence makes m skin n crawl. Likewise, when I get on my religious high horse and rail against some evangelical Christmas, it’s people like Pence I’m thinking of. I could write a book about what I find abhorrent in Pence but unless I can have the opportunity to throw it at him, what’s the point ?
Kieran
Meet your new President if anything should happen to Donald Trump.
RIGay
…ah yup.
Kangol
Are you should he wouldn’t be impeached as well? He’s said things publicly that seem close to skirting the law.
Nahald
Should Trump face impeachment, Pence would likely meet the same fate since obviously as a running mate he was well aware of the Russian connection. and LIED about that!
Lookyloo
Pence already is doing most of the president-stuff – just behind the scenes.
Aside from Trump’s hand picked friends and family; most of the cabinet, appointments, and agendas come straight from Mike Pence’s dream journal.
John Kasich was first approached by the Trump team for the VP position. He revealed they told him he’d be the most powerful VP in history because he’d be essentially doing the president’s job – while Trump would be in charge of ‘making america great again’ (aka golfing).
Rocinante
He’s Trumps bullet proof vest. Kind of like Dan Quayle was. Trump is a maniacal narcissistic and Pence is religious nut. Take your poison. At this point, sadly the only hope for truly crazy shit from passing is congress. We have one more year to get through before all hope for some control is lost over Trumps 4 years.
Brian
That’s what I’m beginning to think. Trump probably knew exactly what he was doing when he picked this guy as VP.
dianes278
Pence isn’t squeaky clean, as he is just as much in the Russian fiasco as is Trump, and they could still go down together. It is inconceivable to me Pence did not know what was going on the entire campaign after Trump picked him to be VP. He had to know. I can’t imagine Trump keeping his VP pick in the dark about strategy.
thelizardqueen
@dianes278: I’m sure you’re right, especially since Trump isn’t exactly known for his tight-lipped nature. The hard part, though, is proving it.
Lookyloo
Pence is making all the ‘real’ decisions anyway.
If Pence were Prez there’d merely be less chaos – but the same agenda would be in place.
Keeping nutty Trump in the Oval Office does keep some of the agenda from happening smoothy or quickly – So.. I guess that’s better for now??
Chuck
I just hope and pray that I’m still around when KARMA bites all of them in the ASS!
DCguy
Sorry but if Trump goes down for anything related to Flynn Pence is going down with him.
Xzamilloh
Are you willing to bet on that? Because I’m not… Trump is poison, but Pence is poison tenfold.
aidenatlanta
Alot of politicians and people in general had very different views on homosexuality as little as 10 years ago. The 90s were a transitional time that laid the foundations for alot of the change we see today. I am less concerned about those comments today. It didn’t seem to matter or come to light during the election. Whether he feels this way today or not he has his current job until 2020/21.
Brian
I take politicians views on homosexuality with a huge grain of salt. I don’t think Obama’s view of same sex marriage evolved, I think he was always fine with it, it just wasn’t politically expedient for him to admit it until he did. And I think a lot of the anti gay ones are just pandering to their audience, and really don’t care much one way or another in their private lives.
Politicians are professional liars. All of them.
dwes09
Referring to the stated views of politicians from past decades is a standard way in which the right criticizes the left. Fortunately there are contemporary comments and documents to refer to to determine if the politicians have evolved or not (and of course the regressives think one needs to “believe” in any form of evolution for it to have reality). Obama, Clinton, and others have evolved in their views. With Pence there is ample evidence he feels the same now as he did then. unless it involves repudiation of their faith, evangelicals never evolve in any intellectual or emotional way.
As far as an evolution on the part of Trump, he lies too much, is too self absorbed and too concerned with image for there to be any way to tell what (if anything) he actually believes in. His actions only reveal his need for self aggrandizement and self protection, not any sort of coherent underlying philosophy.
GentlemanCaller
Well, that’s certainly true about positions “evolving” over time (hello, Hillarie and Barack), but Pence showed aggressive animosity toward the gay community as a US Representative (2006, speaking in favor of a one-man-one-woman marriage amendment: “societal collapse was always brought about following an advent of the deterioration of marriage and family” and also opposed Employment Non-Discrimination on the basis of christian dogma, and likewise lifting military proscriptions. He opposed federal HIV care funding for any groups that “celebrate and encourage the types of behaviors that facilitate the spreading of the HIV virus). In 2014, as governor of Indiana, he signed the anti-gay Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which was later rescinded after massive financial backlash from large corporations. And while trump is notoriously uninterested in anti-gay politics, we can see Pence’s influence in the banning of transgender troops and the elimination of protections for government workers. (Remember that Kaisich, after declining to be trump’s VP, revealed that trump had offered him full control of the domestic agenda, so we have to assume the same offer was made to Pence.) So no, no “benefit of the doubt” that those quotes are just old and out of date; he’s just a christian version of the crazy islamic fundamentalists he claims to hate, and we’re already seeing what his presidency would be like.
ChrisK
Enough with this they’re all the same BS. You gay conservatives are doing back flips on this. Go crawl back into your corner.
Billysees
Brian —
I think your comment, [I take politicians views…], is about as good as it can get. Few politicians are true leaders. Many just say what will turn on their supporters to vote for them or give them the most amount of money. And that’s a shame too.
Bob LaBlah
“Trump is a maniacal narcissistic and Pence is religious nut. Take your poison.”
This is where I had to congratulate ol’ rughead (Trump) on his cunning instincts. He was well aware that the establishment despised him and he selected a vice-president who was not only the anti-Trump but he was also just as despised as Trump is. There is no way Trump would still be in office after the shenanigans he has pulled on Twitter and elsewhere were Pence an acceptable alternative to him. Were Trump to leave I’m willing to bet the first person asked to be vice-president would be Ted Cruz and as soon as Cruz got sworn in he would start undermining Pence. This is a mess here folks. A genuine, U.S. of A. made mess.
Kangol
True, though the GOP is biding their time with Trump to get those tax cuts. Then all bets are off. Once their billionaire masters are taken care of, they may turn on him like a pool of radioactive piranhas.
Heywood Jablowme
The New Yorker article about Pence is pretty interesting (in a creepy way).
Among other things we learn Mike’s nickname when he was a kid… BUBBLES!
He’ll always be Bubbles Pence to me.
GayEGO
Mike just wants a cup of comoffee and a blowme sandwich!
Chuck
BUBBLES … lmao … little Mikey “BUBBLES” Pence.
B417301
During one of the many SNL skits, “President Trump” played by Alec Baldwin, turns to the actor portraying Mike Pence as Pence enters the room and and says something to the effect of: “Ah, Mike Pence…the reason I will never be impeached”….
We are in one big political mess – let’s hope the supreme court does not lose anyone else in the next 3 years!!!
ShowMeGuy
Mr. Pence is a fauxmerican.
Marky
“a chilling effect on religious expression, from the pulpits, in our temples, in our mosques and in our churches.”
Obviously much more grave and serious an issue than the positive effect we have on government policy and the environment, the property values we raise, the crimes we rarely commit, maintaining a welcoming and inclusive environment.
We’re pure evil.
dwes09
Some Evangelicals and fundamentalists, all Dominionists, and all Christian Identity followers feel religious expression trumps any other rights granted (except perhaps for gun ownership). I have read articles on the more rabid of their sites trying to explain (but of course without any facts or primary source citations) how freedom of religion ONLY applies to the various Christian sects, and all other faiths only get to worship or receive protection of rights if Christians wish them to.
It is conceivable that Pence believes this and only refers to other kinds of worship to make his remarks more palatable to the entire ” christian faith community” which wields political power far in excess of the 25-35% of the voting population they actually comprise.
bookworm
I agree with dwes09 completely. Once Trump took office, it became obvious that “so called” Christian Fundamentalist rights would soon triumph over other groups’ civil rights. As a gay American, I don’t think we should be subject to, for instance, the same tax rates as others who get to enjoy all rights and liberties in this country and who don’t have to worry about discrimination in housing, the workplace, etc., etc., ad nauseam. I just hope people remember this social travesty in the 2018 elections. I’m still trying to figure out the idiot(s) who long ago decided being truly Christian (as opposed to most of these posers) and gay were/are incompatible.
Nahald
Repukelicans are known to be homophobic. And Pence seems no different. He can sling Bible garbage with the best of them, but I doubt he really knows what’s in the book. And in case he forgot, Jesus, with him Christians follow, NEVER said a thing about being homosexual. Homophobe Christians always have to refer to the Old Testament. If that’s the case they should start reading about what it says about divorce, cheating on one’s spouse etc.
thelizardqueen
Yeah, well, divorce and adultery (not to mention eating pork, shrimp, and/or cheeseburgers, shaving your beard, and having marital relations with your wife within a week of her period) are fine as long as you repent! And besides, being gay is the only one of those things God calls “abominations” that He *really* thinks is an abomination… because reasons.
/s
GayEGO
thelizardqueen: Hey liz tush, God never said we are abominations, the Christian Bigots did.
irbaboon
I hate christians sooooooooooo much!
GayEGO
Mike Pence is such a liar! He doesn’t want to hire us because we outsmart him and many others because we have had to think much harder about who we are and we apply that hard thinking to our everyday lives. I worked as software engineer for 45 years and eventually made 6 figures. I worked harder than the average employees, got along with customers better, and I was a good problem solver. My lifetime partner of 55 years, married 13 years in Massachusetts, are now both retired and living the American dream. Mike Pence needs to be ousted along with his boss, Donnie Trump, our Cheater in Chief!
James
Log cabin republican kooks, everyone is sick of you.
Keebler ILF
@Celtic “Photos of Pence as a young gay man have been floated across the web, with his sweet bikini briefs leaning next to another lad clad in similar fashion.”
That photo is of figure skater and porn star Brad Patton.
batesmotel
This isn’t news. Everyone has known Mike Pence despises gays. Just look at the Indiana law he enacted way back when. You try to push Trump out, we’ll be stuck with Mike Pence. Trump may be a lot of things, but he’s definitely gay friendlier than Mike Pence. Like it or not.
flexdoc
Id love to beat the crap out of him and show him just how able bodied we can be.
Billysees
Brian —
I think your comment, [I take politicians views…], is about as good as it can get. Few politicians are true leaders. Many just say what will turn on their supporters to vote for them or give them the most amount of money. And that’s a shame too.
John
I think we should all (LGBTQ) file a complaint to Civil Rights under religion act, not a class action suit where attorneys become multi-millionaires, or did I miss the bus on that one.