In a profile of Vice President Mike Pence published Monday in The New Yorker, Jane Mayer reported on a meeting among an unnamed legal scholar, President Donald Trump and Pence in which Trump joked that Pence “wants to hang” gay people.
Mayer also cited two sources who told her Trump routinely enjoys needling the conservative former Indiana governor about his views on abortion and homosexuality. During the meeting with the legal scholar, Mayer reported Trump “belittled Pence’s determination to overturn Roe v. Wade” after the scholar said many states would likely legalize abortion if the Supreme Court were to rule against it.
When the conversation shifted to gay rights, Trump allegedly motioned to Pence and joked, “Don’t ask that guy — he wants to hang them all!”
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The report highlighted fears LGBTQ advocates have raised about Pence. Namely, that he is staunchly anti-LGBTQ, and his presidency, if it were to occur, would open the floodgates to discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
The Human Rights Campaign called Trump’s reported joke “evil” in a tweet posted Monday afternoon.
While serving as governor of Indiana, Pence passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), which critics said would have effectively serve as a license to discriminate against LGBTQ people on religious grounds. In the wake of enormous backlash, Pence signed a “fix” that made clear the state’s RFRA could not be used by businesses to discriminate against LGBTQ patrons.
In the past, Pence has said gay couples “signaled societal collapse,” opposed the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” opposed a law prohibiting discrimination against LGBTQ people in the workplace and rejected Obama administration guidance on transgender students being able to use bathrooms that corresponds to their gender identity.
A request for comment from the White House was not immediately returned.