Openly gay ice skater Adam Rippon gave with Mike Pence the cold shoulder and reportedly turned down the vice president’s offer to a private meeting after Rippon lambasted Pence for his stance on LGBT issues.
Pence, USA Today reports, was so bothered by statements Rippon made last month criticizing his rumored support of gay conversion therapy and backing President Donald Trump after his ‘s***hole countries’ fiasco that the Vice President of the United States tried to arrange a meeting with the 28-year-old athlete.
Rippon, however, wasn’t interested and turned down the offer.
Vice President Mike Pence (left) tried to arrange a private meeting with Olympic ice skater Adam Rippon (right) in South Korea but the 28-year-old athlete declined the offer
Pence reportedly wanted to speak with Rippon (pictured) after he lambasted Pence for his views on homosexuality. Rippon, photographed above practicing ahead of the Olympics, is openly gay
Rippon slammed Pence during an interview last month saying the VP had no ‘real concept of reality’. Rippon made the comments while discussing Pence’s rumored support of gay conversion therapy and him supporting Trump after the president called African nations ‘s***hole countries’
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 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’
Rippon then continued to slam 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
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’.