Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump surprised absolutely no one when he formally announced Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his running mate Friday.
Though Trump’s few nods to the LGBT community during his campaign have widely been interpreted as relatively moderate, the presumptive GOP nominee’s choice of Pence, a former Congressman who once implied that the “deterioration of marriage and family” signaled “societal collapse,” suggests that his administration’s stance on queer issues could be more conservative than initially believed.
That, of course, would contradict The New York Times’ description of Trump as “far more accepting” on LGBT issues than other GOP leaders. Famous backers like transgender icon Caitlyn Jenner, who dropped by Trump Tower to use the ladies’ room this spring, and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, who is gay, will have to try harder to justify their support. That’s not even taking Pence’s opposition to women’s rights into account, either.
Below, here are 6 reasons why Pence will be terrible for queer people if he and Trump are elected.
Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims ― 1.6 billion members of an entire religion ― from entering the U.S.