Mike Pence has spoken out in support of the openly gay Team USA figure skater who refused a sit-down meeting with him at the Winter Olympics.
The Vice President tweeted Adam Rippon on Thursday saying ‘we are for you’, adding ‘I am proud of you and all of our great athletes’ ahead of the Pyeongchang Olympics which starts on Friday.
Pence also accused Rippon of being duped by ‘fake news’ after the Pennsylvania native accused him of being anti-LGBT.
Mike Pence has tweeted in support of openly gay Team USA figure skater Adam Rippon after the athlete refused a sit-down meeting with him at the Pyeongchang Olympics
Pence (pictured in South Korea) had reportedly requested the meeting after Rippon accused him of being anti-LGBT and for supporting Trump after his ‘s***hole’ countries remark
The Vice President said he was ‘proud’ of Rippon and all other Team USA athletes, but also accused him of being duped by ‘fake news’
Rippon said he would be happy to meet with Pence after the Olympics had taken place, but said he was too busy preparing for his first event to sit down beforehand
Pence had tried to arrange the meeting after Rippon blasted him for his rumored support of gay conversion therapy, and for his backing of President Trump after his ‘s***hole countries’ remark.
But Rippon gave him the cold shoulder, instead tweeting out a series of quotes he attributed to Pence opposing gay marriage and opposing extending anti-discrimination laws to LGBT people.
Voting records show Pence voted in favor of a constitutional amendment that would have defined marriage as between a man and a woman in 2006.
He then voted against two bills that would have protected workers from discrimination based on sexual orientation in 2007.
In 2009 he voted against a bill to expand the definition of ‘hate crime’ to cover ‘prejudice based on national origin, sexual orientation, or gender identity’.
He also consistently voted against repealing the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ military policy.
Sources told USA Today that a member of Pence’s staff had reached out to US Olympic Committee to see if a sit-down meeting could be arranged in South Korea but Rippon refused.
On Monday, Rippon told reporters that he was trying to focus on his first Olympic game and not engaging in any kind of social protest.
‘I’m trying to train for the biggest competition of my life. I’m not trying to pick a fight with the Vice President of the United State, he said, according to CBS.
Rippon added that he would happily talk with Pence once the Olympic games are over.
While speaking with USA Today Sports last month, the athlete criticized Pence’s stance on the LGBT community. Rippon also had a few choice words for Pence’s support of Trump after the president made derogatory comments about foreigners and African countries.
‘I don’t think he has a real concept of reality,’ Rippon told the newspaper. ‘To stand by some of the things that Donald Trump has said and for Mike Pence to say he’s a devout Christian man is completely contradictory. If he’s OK with what’s being said about people and Americans and foreigners and about different countries that are being called ‘sh**holes’, I think he should really go to church.’
Rippon slammed Pence in a series of tweets, sharing grabs of remarks Pence made about the LBGT community
‘Given the chance to talk after the Olympics, I would want to bring with me people who’s lives heave been hurt by the legislation he has championed,’ Rippon wrote in one tweet
Rippon also said during the interview that he had no interest in meeting someone like Pence who shows ‘they aren’t a friend of a gay person’ and thinks gay people are ‘sick’
He also slammed Pence’s highly-publicized involvement in the 2018 Winter Olympics.
The vice president has been tasked with leading the official US delegation to the Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
‘If it were before my event, I would absolutely not go out of my way to meet somebody who I felt has gone out of their way to not only show that they aren’t a friend of a gay person but that they think they’re sick,’ he said. ‘I wouldn’t go out of my way to meet somebody like that.’
Pence’s press secretary responded to Rippon’s comments at the time saying they were ‘totally false’ and had no ‘basis in fact’.
Rippon in turn took to Twitter to provide ‘receipts’ including a comment Pence made in 2000 during his run for Congress. On his website under a section on LGBT issues, the then-Indiana governor said: ‘Congress should oppose any effort to put gay and lesbian relationships on an equal legal status with homosexual marriage’.