Meet Mike Pence

Patheos = Pence is a rabid homophobe who wants to deny civil civil rights for LGBT people.  Last year, as Governor of Indiana, Pence signed a draconian religious freedom bill into law that actively promoted discrimination against LGBT people.

Indeed, Time reports Pence has a long history of demeaning gays and promoting discrimination against the LGBT community. In the past, Pence has claimed that gay couples signal “societal collapse;” opposed a law that would prohibit discrimination against LGBT people in the workplace; opposed the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell; and, more recently, he rejected the Obama administration directive on transgender bathrooms.

Pence is anti-women. Pence supports so-called personhood bills that would criminalize abortion nationwide. In addition, Right Wing Watch reports Pence has spearheaded congressional efforts to defund Planned Parenthood, even if it meant shutting down the government; signed anti-abortion measures into law in Indiana; and rallied opposition to President Obama’s effort to roll back prohibitions on stem-cell research.

Pence is anti-science, and refuses to accept evolution or climate change.

Pence is a climate science denier. Media Matters reports:

On the February 21, 2014, edition of MSNBC’s The Daily Rundown, host Chuck Todd asked Pence if he is “convinced that climate change is man-made.” Pence responded: “I don’t know that that is a resolved issue in science today.” Moments later, Pence added: “Just a few years ago, we were talking about global warming. We haven’t seen a lot of warming lately. I remember back in the ‘70s we were talking about the coming ice age.” Pence similarly stated on the May 5, 2009, edition of MSNBC’s Hardball that “I think the science is very mixed on the subject of global warming,” as ThinkProgress noted. However, according to NASA: “Multiple studies published in peer-reviewed scientific journals show that 97 percent or more of actively publishing climate scientists agree: Climate-warming trends over the past century are extremely likely due to human activities.”

Pence also refuses to accept evolution. Confronted by Hardball host Chris Matthews in 2009 on evolution, Pence obfuscated on the issue, made appeals to God, and ultimately refused to acknowledge the scientific truth of evolution:

MATTHEWS: Okay, you want to educate the American people about science and its relevance today. Do you believe in evolution, sir?

PENCE: Do I believe in evolution? I embrace the view that God created the heavens and the earth, the seas and all that’s in them.

MATTHEWS: Right. But do you believe in evolution as the way he did it?

PENCE: The means, Chris, that he used to do that, I can’t say. But I do believe in that fundamental truth.