People all across the USA want to know who J.D. Vance is after Donald Trump announced him as his pick to be Vice President. According to the Human Rights Campaign, the US Senator of Ohio has stated he “strongly disagreed” that LGBTQ+ people should be protected from discrimination. He also spoke out against Biden’s Marriage Equality Act, and has voice support on barring victims of rape and incest from access to abortion care.
Throughout his term as a Senator, Vance has voted against progressive bills including one that would codify access to IVF, and he has said that he would back a national abortion ban. He has also introduced legislation that would charge doctors as felons for providing gender affirming care to trans youth. The HRC has claimed that by choosing Vance, Trump is making it clear that his second administration “would build on its legacy of being the most anti-LGBTQ+ in American history.”
The Advocate highlighted Vance’s track record of homophobia and transphobia through the years, which spans his vote against the Respect for Marriage Act, to his vehement opposition to gender affirming care and transgender people to his broader rejections of DEI. Just last month, he proposed a bill to eliminate all federal diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. In a press release, Vance said “The DEI agenda is a destructive ideology that breeds hatred and racial division. It has no place in our federal government or anywhere else in our society.”
Though Vance has opportunistically accepted the offer to be Trump’s VP, Reuters reports that he has likened Donald Trump to Hitler in the past, publicly calling Trump an “idiot” and “reprehensible,” during his first run for president. However, in interviews he voiced that his shift in opinion was a gradual realization that his opposition to Trump “was rooted in style rather than substance.”
Together, Trump and Vance are a menacing team hoping to push forward a hateful and fear-based agenda. If you haven’t already done so, you can register to vote here.
