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![\"Gus](\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.towleroad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/olympic_kenworthy.jpg?resize=195%2C195\")
<\/p>\nGus Kenworthy Agrees That Mike Pence Has No Business Leading the Olympic Delegation<\/b>
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Gay skier Gus Kenworthy agrees with out U.S. figure skater Adam Rippon that homophobic Vice President Mike Pence shouldn\u2019t be leading the Olympic delegation to PyeongChang for the Winter Games next month.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n Said Kenworthy to USA Today<\/em><\/a>: \u201cI actually found out about it from Adam Rippon\u2019s quote about it. I feel the same way as him. I think it\u2019s not the person I would have expected, and I think it sends mixed messages because this is the first time we\u2019re seeing out U.S. Olympic athletes competing in the Winter Olympics, and then we have someone leading the delegation that doesn\u2019t support that, and doesn\u2019t support the LGBT community, and has spoken against it. I think it doesn\u2019t send the right message. It\u2019s unfortunate, but it is what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n Read his full interview here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Rippon spoke earlier this month with\u00a0USA Today<\/em>\u00a0about the choice<\/a>:\u00a0\u201cYou mean Mike Pence, the same Mike Pence that funded gay<\/a> conversion therapy? I\u2019m not buying it.\u201d<\/p>\n Rippon said he\u2019d avoid a meet-and-greet with Pence because of his views:\u00a0\u201cIf 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\u2019t a friend of a gay<\/a> person but that they think that they\u2019re sick.\u201d<\/p>\n Rippon also said that Pence does not have a \u201creal concept of reality\u201d if he declares himself to be a \u201cdevout Christian\u201d and stands by Donald Trump\u2019s policies: \u201cIf he\u2019s okay with what\u2019s being said about people and Americans and foreigners and about different countries that are being called \u2018s\u2014holes,\u2019\u00a0I think he should really go to church.\u201d<\/p>\n Rippon said he might speak to Pence if he felt there was a way to have \u201can open conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe vice president is proud to lead the U.S. delegation to the Olympics and support America\u2019s incredible athletes. This accusation is totally false and has no basis in fact. Despite these misinformed claims, the vice president will be enthusiastically supporting all the U.S. athletes competing next month in Pyeongchang.\u201d<\/p>\n That, unfortunately, is not true.<\/p>\n Pence, as his record shows, is no friend to the LGBTQ community.<\/p>\n In 2000\u00a0during his first successful run for Congress<\/a>, Pence\u00a0said that\u00a0he was in favor of sending\u00a0money allocated to care for people with HIV\/AIDS to organizations that provide conversion therapy.<\/p>\n From running a think-tank that published virulently anti-gay<\/a> articles, to attempting\u00a0to divert HIV\/AIDS money to fund conversion therapy, to refusing to protect LGBT Hoosiers from discrimination, to legalizing anti-LGBT discrimination in Indiana, to cozying up to\u00a0notorious homophobes, to supporting\u00a0a ban on gay<\/a> marriage, and decrying the \u2018mainstreaming of homosexuality in the military\u2019 after DADT was repealed, Pence\u2019s record\u00a0is among the worst records on LGBTQ issues of anyone who has ever occupied the office of the Vice President.<\/p>\n The post Gus Kenworthy Agrees That Mike Pence Has No Business Leading the Olympic Delegation<\/a> appeared first on Towleroad<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n