Openly gay figure skater Adam Rippon has already spoken about not wanting to go to the White House as he does not feel he would be welcomed as a gay athlete. Now, The White House is coming to him in the form of Mike Pence, who will be going to the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea as he was selected to lead the 2018 U.S. Olympics delegation. Once again, Adam isn't having it, and blasted their decision in a new interview with USA Today.
“You mean Mike Pence, the same Mike Pence that funded gay conversion therapy?” he said. “I’m not buying it.”
He spoke about not wanting to meet Mike during the traditional meet and greets between the official delegation and U.S. athletes in the hours leading to the opening ceremony. He actually may miss that anyway to be part of the figure skating competition.
“If it were before my event, I would absolutely not go out of my way to meet somebody who I felt has gone out of their way to not only show that they aren’t a friend of a gay person but that they think that they’re sick,” he said. “I wouldn’t go out of my way to meet somebody like that."
“I don’t think he has a real concept of reality,” he said of Pence. “To stand by some of the things that Donald Trump has said and for Mike Pence to say he’s a devout Christian man is completely contradictory. If he’s okay with what’s being said about people and Americans and foreigners and about different countries that are being called ‘shitholes,' I think he should really go to church."
After the interview with Adam went out today, Pence's press secretary Alyssa Farah emailed a statement to USA Sports, saying "“The vice president is proud to lead the U.S. delegation to the Olympics and support America’s incredible athletes. This accusation is totally false and has no basis in fact. Despite these misinformed claims, the vice president will be enthusiastically supporting all the U.S. athletes competing next month in Pyeongchang.”
Should Adam meet with Pence at all during the games? Would anything benefit from it given his outspokenness?