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  • 2016-10-07 (xsd:date)
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  • Mike Pence: Gay People Aren't 'Able Bodied' Enough for Military Service (en)
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  • An image widely circulated during the 2016 presidential campaign depicted the Republican vice presidential candidate, Governor Mike Pence of Indiana, along with text suggesting he had once said that homosexuals are not able bodied and carry extremely high rates of disease: This statement stemmed from a 1993 journal article about homosexuals serving in the military. Mike Pence was in charge of the organization that published the journal, the the Indiana Policy Review Foundation (IPRF), but he did not himself pen the article in question. The journal piece was written by one of the IPRF's senior fellows, Col. Ronald Ray (bylined as R.D. Ray), and it was published in the IPRF's journal in August 1993 under the title Military Necessity and Homosexuality: The allegation that gay men are not sufficiently able bodied for military service appeared on page 10 of that journal issue: Ray went on to argue that there was no sound military reason for LGBTQ Americans to be allowed into the U.S. armed forces: The journal's masthead listed Pence as the IPRF's president but did not indicate he served in any editorial capacity for publishing of the foundation's journal: Pence served as the IPRF's president between 1991 and 1993 and then left the organization, but he did write an op-ed piece published in the journal in 1996, one complaining that the Republican Party was pandering too much to LGBTQ interests (among others) at their national convention that year: Since then, more of Pence's anti-LGBTQ stances have come to light. On 2 December 2010, Pence (by then a congressman) voiced his opposition to repealing the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy banning homosexual U.S. troops from openly revealing their sexuality: Before joining Donald Trump as a running mate on the 2016 GOP presidential ticket, Governor Pence entered the national spotlight on 2 April 2015 when he signed Indiana Senate Bill 101, also known as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The bill prompted widespread criticism and boycott threats over fears that it would legally allow businesses to turn away LGBTQ clientele. Exactly a month later, he signed revised version of the law explicitly prohibiting such treatment. (en)
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