Rachel Maddow spoke about Mike Pence’s anti-LGBT policies and it’s a heartbreaking reality
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow spoke about vice-president elect Mike Pence and his anti-gay policies, and it’s heartbreaking.
Maddow is no stranger to the difficult process that led up to the legalisation of same-sex marriage, and the daunting reality of Mike Pence being the VP made her incredibly emotional on her show.
The host made note that in 2013 Pence signed legislation in his position as governor of Indiana to make it a felony to “lie” on an application for a marriage license, which only had space for one man and one woman.
“So, ultimately, marriage equality becomes the law of the land everywhere thanks to the Supreme Court, but in Indiana, under Mike Pence, gay couples faced 18 months in prison and $10,000 for applying to get married. Just applying to married put you in jail under Mike Pence.”
She went on to explain the detriment Pence will have on the country and Trump’s running mate.
“When the Republican party picked as their nominee this year Donald Trump, a man who has honestly kind of a confusing, incoherent position on a lot of culture war issues, including gay rights, you would think it would’ve been really huge news.
“You’d think it would’ve been an acute point of focus in this campaign when the Republican presidential nominee — who has this strange, sort of hard to follow, internally contradictory set of policies on these issues — he picked as his running mate the most vociferously and consistently anti-gay statewide elected official in the country.
“Mike Pence said you should not only take away money from HIV and AIDS programs, he said AIDS funding should be taken away from serving people with HIV and AIDS because instead it should be diverted into government-funded programs designed to cure people from being gay, to try to fix gay people. That’s what the government should spend its money on — not this AIDS stuff.”
“Mike Pence is really, really out there,” she finished.
LGBT activists are gearing up for tough battles in years ahead, as the Republicans retain control of Congress and Donald Trump becomes President-elect.
When Trump takes office in January, the GOP will be in full control of both the executive and the legislature for the first time since 2005.
The news means little chance for the Democrats to scupper Republican attacks on LGBT rights, with Obama previously using executive powers to defend equality from advances in Congress – something Trump has pledged not to do.
A Trump presidency is a terrifying many in the LGBT community, so PinkNews analysed what it means for LGBT rights.
