Not that this will come as a surprise to anyone, but a recent story on CNN revealed just how homophobic Mike Pence really is and how adamantly he has always gone out of his way to keep gay people vulnerable to hate.
Local newspapers discovered archived articles from Indiana featuring Pence in the 1990s. Among those clippings were statements made by then, Governor Pence, arguing that gay rights were not valid and should not be compared to racial discrimination. In his reasoning, he offered the following inaccurate statement:
“Once you identify homosexuals as a minority, then by definition they would need to be afforded constitutional protection,” Pence added. “Up to this point, our legal tradition in America has drawn a line over those things. I do not choose whether I am a black American … the great vast majority of the psychological community says homosexuality at a very minimum is a choice by the individual, and at the maximum, is a learned behavior.”
I am not sure what psychological community Pence is referring to because reputable psychologists do not share his antiquated notions. In fact, according to CNN, in 1992 The American Psychological Association (APA) went on record to state there was no data to suggest that homosexuality was learned or chosen. To the contrary, at that time, the APA shared that science leaned more toward sexual identity being biological and perhaps part of one’s psychological makeup.
Pence’s purposeful plight against gay people seems deeply rooted and personal. While Governor of Indiana he went out of his way repeatedly to block legislation that would make it illegal in the state for businesses and employers to discriminate against people based on sexuality or gender identity. Despite this, his handlers insist Pence rejects all discrimination on all counts, but that is simply not true. We only need to look at his actions to dispell that claim.
Then there is also the wide-spread speculation that Pence supports conversion therapy based on a statement posted on his congressional campaign site in 2000 site advocating to divert taxpayer dollars to “provide assistance for those who are looking to change their sexual behavior.” Pence supporters have pushed back citing Pence never mentioned “conversion therapy” specifically, suggesting too that his statement might have been referring to sexual behaviors as in the activity itself –not sexuality.
Pence has not clarified his ambiguous statement and continues to declare he is not homophobic. Just last week, in a most laughable attempt to offer proof of his acceptance of the LGBT community, Pence’s secretary, Judd Deere sent out a Tweet that basically said, “Look, SEE! The vice president cannot be anti-gay because he’s having lunch with the openly gay Prime minster of Ireland and his partner.”
Great, I’m glad Deere cleared that up. Maybe now we can extend that long-overdue invitation to Mike Pence and “Mother” to be the Grand Marshalls of next year’s DC Pride Parade.
