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| Pence broadcasting on The Mike Pence Show in the 1990s |
By Nico Lang
September 01 2016 11:28 AM EDT
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GOP vice presidential nominee Mike Pence was the president of an
antigay think tank that criticized the inclusion of HIV-positive
speakers at the 1996 Republican National Convention.
From 1991 to 1994, Pence ran Indiana Policy Review, a conservative group that runs a journal of the same name. Two years after he stepped down from the post, the current governor of Indiana claimed that the ‘96 RNC was an “endless line of pro-choice women, AIDS activists and proponents of affirmative action.”
“[They] may have stuck a chord with the Washington press corp,” Pence wrote. “They bombed, however, in Peoria.”
Held in San Diego, that year’s RNC hosted Mary Fisher, who was a Republican White House staffer during the Ford administration. In 1992, President George H.W. Bush tapped Fisher as a representative National Commission on AIDS.
“Tonight, I represent an AIDS community whose members have been reluctantly drafted from every segment of American society,” Fisher said in her 1996 speech. “I am one with a black infant struggling with tubes in a Philadelphia hospital. I am one with the lonely gay man sheltering a flickering candle from the cold wind of his family’s rejection.”
Hydeia Broadbent, a six-year-old girl living with HIV, joined Fisher onstage for the address.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Norman Mailer praised the speech, writing, “The floor was in tears, and conceivably the nation as well.” But according to Pence, Fisher didn’t represent the values of the Republican party.
“The sad truth is that the Republican Party for all its success in generating media praise for the convention failed to present the personalities or principles of interest to its base constituency, the modern Reagan coalition,” he wrote, adding: “Like it or not, traditional Pro-Family conservatives make up the bedrock of modern Republican electoral success.”
During Pence’s tenure, the Indiana Policy Review “published several anti-gay pieces,” as Right Wing Watch reports.
In August 1993, Col. Ronald Ray, who served as the Secretary of Defense under the Reagan administration, penned an article markedly similar in tone to Pence’s RNC remarks. Ray wrote in defense of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, arguing that allowing LGBT people to serve openly would endanger the military.
“Homosexuals are not as a group able bodied,” he wrote. “They are known to carry extremely high rates of disease brought on because of the nature of their sexual practices and the promiscuity which is a hallmark of their lifestyle.”
The piece further claimed that LGBT people are pedophiles, stating that “the love between man and boys is at the foundation of homosexuality.”
Another antigay article included “The Pinked Newsroom.” Published in the December 1993 issue, Indiana Policy Review took umbrage with the Wall Street Journal for attending an LGBT job fair to recruit new staffers.
The publication further argued that gay journalists must disclose their sexual orientation in reporting—to prevent them from pushing a pro-LGBT agenda. “[T]he more extreme of the gay movement consider themselves members of a sexual determined political party,” the journal stated.
This isn’t the first time that Pence’s anti-LGBT history has come to light.
During his 2000 run for Congress, Pence proposed gutting funding for HIV patients in favor of conversion therapy, the dangerous and widely discredited practice of “curing” same-sex desires. “Resources should be directed toward those institutions which provide assistance to those seeking to change their sexual behavior,” Pence wrote on his campaign website. The GOP platform at the 2016 Republican convention supported the use of "ex-gay" conversion therapy.
As the governor of Indiana, Pence would pass the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a 2015 law that made it legal to deny services to LGBT customers based on one’s “sincerely held religious beliefs.” That law was “fixed” following a $60 million boycott against the state.
From 1991 to 1994, Pence ran Indiana Policy Review, a conservative group that runs a journal of the same name. Two years after he stepped down from the post, the current governor of Indiana claimed that the ‘96 RNC was an “endless line of pro-choice women, AIDS activists and proponents of affirmative action.”
“[They] may have stuck a chord with the Washington press corp,” Pence wrote. “They bombed, however, in Peoria.”
Held in San Diego, that year’s RNC hosted Mary Fisher, who was a Republican White House staffer during the Ford administration. In 1992, President George H.W. Bush tapped Fisher as a representative National Commission on AIDS.
“Tonight, I represent an AIDS community whose members have been reluctantly drafted from every segment of American society,” Fisher said in her 1996 speech. “I am one with a black infant struggling with tubes in a Philadelphia hospital. I am one with the lonely gay man sheltering a flickering candle from the cold wind of his family’s rejection.”
Hydeia Broadbent, a six-year-old girl living with HIV, joined Fisher onstage for the address.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Norman Mailer praised the speech, writing, “The floor was in tears, and conceivably the nation as well.” But according to Pence, Fisher didn’t represent the values of the Republican party.
“The sad truth is that the Republican Party for all its success in generating media praise for the convention failed to present the personalities or principles of interest to its base constituency, the modern Reagan coalition,” he wrote, adding: “Like it or not, traditional Pro-Family conservatives make up the bedrock of modern Republican electoral success.”
During Pence’s tenure, the Indiana Policy Review “published several anti-gay pieces,” as Right Wing Watch reports.
In August 1993, Col. Ronald Ray, who served as the Secretary of Defense under the Reagan administration, penned an article markedly similar in tone to Pence’s RNC remarks. Ray wrote in defense of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, arguing that allowing LGBT people to serve openly would endanger the military.
“Homosexuals are not as a group able bodied,” he wrote. “They are known to carry extremely high rates of disease brought on because of the nature of their sexual practices and the promiscuity which is a hallmark of their lifestyle.”
The piece further claimed that LGBT people are pedophiles, stating that “the love between man and boys is at the foundation of homosexuality.”
Another antigay article included “The Pinked Newsroom.” Published in the December 1993 issue, Indiana Policy Review took umbrage with the Wall Street Journal for attending an LGBT job fair to recruit new staffers.
The publication further argued that gay journalists must disclose their sexual orientation in reporting—to prevent them from pushing a pro-LGBT agenda. “[T]he more extreme of the gay movement consider themselves members of a sexual determined political party,” the journal stated.
This isn’t the first time that Pence’s anti-LGBT history has come to light.
During his 2000 run for Congress, Pence proposed gutting funding for HIV patients in favor of conversion therapy, the dangerous and widely discredited practice of “curing” same-sex desires. “Resources should be directed toward those institutions which provide assistance to those seeking to change their sexual behavior,” Pence wrote on his campaign website. The GOP platform at the 2016 Republican convention supported the use of "ex-gay" conversion therapy.
As the governor of Indiana, Pence would pass the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a 2015 law that made it legal to deny services to LGBT customers based on one’s “sincerely held religious beliefs.” That law was “fixed” following a $60 million boycott against the state.
Read more articles from the Advocate, here.
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