On The Road to the #VPDebate, HRC Unveils Billboard Calling Out Gov. Mike Pence’s Anti-LGBTQ Record

• By HRC staff

• October 4, 2016 

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Today, HRC unveiled a billboard on U.S. 360 West, on the way to the location of tonight’s vice presidential debate, warning of Gov. Mike Pence’s anti-LGBTQ record as Governor of Indiana and a Member of Congress.

The billboard reads: “Mike Pence’s hateful politics… bad for Indiana, bad for our country. #LoveTrumpsHate”.

HRC also released a new video detailing Pence’s longstanding animus toward the LGBTQ community.

Published on Oct 4, 2016

Vice Presidential candidate Indiana Governor Mike Pence earned wide criticism last year for signing a discriminatory anti-LGBTQ law in Indiana that harmed Hoosiers and cost his state millions. Pence's track record includes opposing hate crimes legislation and the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ backing anti-LGBTQ activists. He even supported offsetting funding for HIV prevention with funding for the abusive practice of so-called “conversion therapy.”

HRC President Chad Griffin will be attending tonight’s debate.

Pence became a national disgrace in 2015, for his “license to discriminate” bill that could have allowed businesses to deny service to LGBTQ people -- and subsequently defending the bill over an outcry from the business community and a majority of Hoosier voters. In a now notorious interview with ABC last year, Pence refused to answer eight separate times when asked whether businesses should be able to discriminate against LGBTQ people.

Pence also opposes marriage equality and Department of Education guidelines supporting transgender students. When serving in Congress, he voted against the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, calling it a “radical social agenda.”  
For more information on Pence’s anti-LGBTQ record, click here. 

Read more articles from HRC, here.

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HATEFUL THINGS MIKE PENCE HAS SAID AND DONE

Brought to you by Mother Jones

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We've covered plenty of these before, but here's a refresher:

• In March, Pence signed a bill into law requiring burial or cremation for aborted fetuses.
• Last month, Pence said he'd like to "send Roe v. Wade to the ash heap of history."
• Pence signed a 2015 bill permitting Indiana business owners to cite religious beliefs as a reason to refuse service to gay and lesbian customers.
• As Indiana's governor, Pence slashed Planned Parenthood funding, arguably contributing to one county's HIV outbreak.
• During his 12 years as a congressman, Pence voted against nearly every piece of environmental legislation.
• Pence voted to bar the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases.
• Pence voted for opening the Atlantic up to offshore oil drilling.
• As a congressman, Pence gave a floor speech advocating the teaching of creationism in public schools.
• Pence wrote an op-ed arguing that "smoking doesn't kill."
• Pence has advocated the use of public funds for conversion therapy, a discredited and potentially harmful form of anti-gay therapy.
• Gov. Pence funneled $3.5 million in Indiana's Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds, intended for needy families with children, to crisis pregnancy centers, which counsel women against having abortions.
• Gov. Pence refused to comply with Obama administration rules aimed at reducing prison rape.
• As congressman, Pence voted in favor of a bill that would have allowed for the detention of undocumented immigrants seeking hospital treatment.
• Pence co-sponsored a bill in Congress that would have eliminated automatic citizenship for children born on US soil to undocumented parents.
• Pence was one of 31 governors to oppose the resettlement of Syrian refugees in his state, declaring that state agencies wouldn't cover the cost of some social services for Syrian refugees. His behavior earned him a strong rebuke from a panel of three federal judges, including one whom Donald Trump put on his Supreme Court nominee short list.

  Read more articles from Mother Jones, here.