Post submitted by Hayley Miller, former HRC Associate Director of Digital and Social

With speculation growing that there is a potential Trump executive order that could extend a broad license to discriminate against LGBTQ people, it is important to remember another anti-LGBTQ leader in the Trump Administration: Vice President Mike Pence.

Here are five times Pence failed the LGBTQ community:

1. Pence supported the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which barred legally married same-sex couples from having their marriages recognized by the federal government. After section 3 of DOMA was ruled unconstitutional, he urged amending the Indiana Constitution to outlaw marriage equality.

2. Pence opposed the guidance from the Department of Education that clarifies that transgender students have a right under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 to access restrooms consistent with their gender identity, saying, “The federal government has no business getting involved in issues of this nature.”

3. While in Congress, Pence voted against the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which the majority of fair-minded Americans supported. ENDA would have prohibited discrimination in employment based on sexual orientation or gender identity. 

4. Pence opposed the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” by saying it would turn the military into “a backdrop for social experimentation." “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” prohibited qualified gay and lesbian Americans from serving in the armed forces. Congress repealed the discriminatory law in 2010.

5. He became a national disgrace in 2015 for his “license to discriminate” bill that could have allowed businesses to deny service to LGBTQ people -- and subsequently defending the bill over an outcry from the business community and a majority of Hoosier voters.