By Steven Gan – A personal perspective
By the time you’re reading this, the Republican and Democratic Conventions will have come and gone and Trump’s campaign of insults, lies, and outrageous and outlandish remarks, assertions, and beliefs will be in full swing. But now he’s going to have a sidekick who will try to modulate Trump’s sewer mouth, joining those advisors who do their embarrassing best to get Trump to be more “presidential.”
I can’t say that I was surprised when Trump picked Governor Mike Pence of Indiana to be his running mate. When he called Ted Cruz “Lying Ted,” while holding up the Bible and proclaiming him to be a religious hypocrite, Trump alienated Evangelicals throughout the country.
This was a real problem for Trump. Most religious conservatives revere Cruz. In addition, many suspect that Trump is just not a real conservative.
So who is Mike Pence? He was suddenly in the national spotlight in April, 2015, when he signed Indiana’s so-called Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) in Indianapolis. Although legislation with the same name was originally passed on the federal level under President Bill Clinton, and a version of it was even passed in Illinois with the support of then-Senator Barack Obama, additional legislation at the federal and Illinois State levels was also passed to make it clear that no business that sells to the public could discriminate against anyone based upon sexual orientation or sexual identity. This was not the case with Indiana’s RFRA.
But the fact that the country has overwhelmingly changed its understanding and acceptance of LGBT Americans means that any legislation that has the potential to undermine the rights of LGBT Americans is now recognized as being discriminatory.
So just after Governor Pence signed Indiana’s RFRA bill—in relative secrecy, surrounded by a bunch of conservative religious men and women and some anti-LGBT activists—he got a swift kick in the derriere when many corporate and political leaders threatened to pull their business out of his state. This would have caused serious economic damage and earned Indiana the moniker “The State of Hate.” Furthermore, the inclusion of the RFRA into the Indiana Constitution would have made it possible for florists, wedding caterers, photographers, and anyone else who sells to the public at large to say to LGBT Americans, “Sorry, but my faith doesn’t allow me to recognize your same sex wedding or other gay ceremonies. You’ll have to go somewhere else.”
From Pence’s twisted perspective, this was all perfectly logical, since a person of sincerely held religious beliefs should be able to discriminate against those who they feel might be in violation of their religious doctrine. Fortunately, the blowback made Pence’s head spin, and an amendment to the RFRA was quickly signed into law to make sure that Hoosier LGBT Americans could get their flower arrangements, photos, cakes, gowns, liquor, bands, etc. from any vendor who provides their services generally.
Pence has had a long and illustrious career when it comes to his obsession with religious liberty as an excuse for opposition to gay rights. When running for Congress in 2000, Pence’s campaign website was full of homophobic gems like this: “Congress should oppose any effort to recognize homosexuals as a ‘discrete and insular minority’ entitled to the protection of anti-discrimination laws similar to those extended to women and ethnic minorities.”
The website also declared Pence’s support for gay conversion therapy, evinced the belief that organizations receiving HIV-treatment funds under the Ryan White Care Act “celebrate and encourage” HIV transmission, and demonstrated his conviction that “homosexuality is incompatible with military service.”
In Pence’s 12 years in Congress, he voted to define marriage as only between a man and a woman, opposed measures to block employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, and opposed the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. In 2009, he opposed the expansion of hate crime definitions to include crimes motivated by sexual orientation because he claimed that it would have a “chilling effect” on religious expression. A year later, he told CNN that open LGBT military service amounts to “social experimentation.”
So here we have it. Trump picked Pence to shore up the Evangelical vote. And rumor has it that Pence was willing to be Trump’s running mate because his reelection as Governor of Indiana was in doubt. So I say to Mike Pence:
Hopefully this will be your last year in any government office as your bigoted and discriminatory beliefs towards LGBT Americans have no place in a civilized, enlightened, inclusive, and rational society.
And shame on you, Donald Trump, for your willingness to exploit Pence’s homophobia to further your own ambitions.
