Vice President, Mike Pence. Photo from Wikimedia.
On November 8, Donald Trump became the President-Elect of the United States. This sparked a nationwide outrage by the ones who were opposed to Trump. Many took to social media, and people also took to the streets to protest. As I sat watching the news, and listening to people talk about their concerns about Trump, I couldn’t help but to wonder why barely anyone was talking about Mike Pence, the Vice President-elect. After asking, I came to the conclusion that people were not informed of Pence’s troubling policies and values
Pence holds similar views to Trump in areas like immigration, foreign policy, climate change, etc. However, unlike Trump, Pence holds a very conservative view on certain topics. These concern me the most, considering that Pence has a long background of being strongly against abortion and LGBT rights.
Pence’s anti LGBT background has been dated back since 2006. In 2006, according to lgbtqnation.com, Pence supported an amendment to ban same sex marriages. He explained the reason why he supported that amendment, saying “societal collapse was always brought about following an advent of the deterioration of marriage and family.” He also stated that being gay was simply a choice, and that discrimination towards the LGBT was “God’s plan.” Pence also opposed a law in 2007, which would have prohibited discrimination towards LGBT employees in the workplace, stating that the law would wage war on religion and freedom in the workplace, according to Time magazine. In 2009, he voted no on enforcing against anti gay hate crimes, according to ontheissues.org.
His most controversial move was in 2000, where he supported taking federal funds that go to HIV resources, and instead use that money for conversion therapy, which is a controversial form of “therapy” that uses practices such as shock treatment to “turn” LGBT members straight. Conversion therapy has been denounced by mental health professionals and it’s even outlawed in states like Vermont, California, New Jersey, Illinois and Oregon.
Pence also has a long record of being extremely pro life. He has made an effort several times to declare the unborn as people under the 14th amendment, and grant the unborn equal protection under the 14th amendment. Pence is strongly against Planned Parenthood. According to ontheissues.org, he has supported a bill to prohibit federal funding to Planned Parenthood. He also supported prohibiting federal funding to ALL abortions. He’s voted for yes for banning partial birth abortion, forbidding human cloning for reproduction and medical research, funding health providers who do not provide abortion information, and banning federal health coverage that includes abortion.
Donald Trump has a lot of controversial, outrageous policies, however, Mike Pence not only has the same policies as Trump, but he holds very traditionalist views on topics that greatly affect large groups of people. Now that Pence is in power, and the GOP won the Senate and the House of Representatives, many are worrying that certain abortion and LGBT rights will be overturned. Pence is against fundamental reproductive and LGBT rights, and that’s why I’m afraid of Pence.
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