The fact that Pence does vile, hateful things while well-coiffed and calm doesn't make him decent; it makes him insidious
There's a difference between being opposed to gay marriage and/or transgenderism (most people are) and demanding that the basic rights/protections/equal treatment/opportunities/etc enjoyed by straight people should be denied LBGT/Q people because you feel icky about their sexual preferences.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/03/02/mike-pence-isnt-decent-hes-insidious/
Mike Pence isn’t ‘decent.’ He’s insidious.share
By Cynthia Nixon
March 2
Cynthia Nixon is an actor and advocate for progressive causes.
Speaking at a forum in Omaha on Thursday, Joe Biden called Vice President Pence “a decent guy.”
When a chorus of progressives and LGBTQ activists, including myself, pointed out that a man who has built his career on homophobia and misogyny cannot possibly be considered “decent,” some dismissed it as just outrage Twitter. While Biden later walked back his comments and acknowledged that “there is nothing decent about being anti-LGBTQ rights,” I think it’s important to explain why calling Pence “a decent guy” is an affront to the real meaning of the word.
https://twitter.com/CynthiaNixon/status/1101253381522243584
https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1101265221476331521
While I like and admire much about Biden personally and politically, especially his championing of the Violence Against Women Act, when he talks about Pence being “a decent guy,” he is putting politeness over policy. In effect, he is saying that Pence’s record doesn’t matter. So let’s talk about that record.
As governor of Indiana, Pence signed a “religious freedom” bill that would have allowed LGBTQ discrimination. He refused to lift a ban on needle exchange programs until a preventable HIV outbreak reached epidemic levels. On the website for his 2000 congressional campaign, Pence suggested support for so-called conversion therapy, which is associated with higher suicide risk for LGBTQ youth. During Pence’s tenure as head of the Indiana Policy Review Foundation, it ran an article that suggested that women should have to be married to obtain birth control. He published an article urging businesses not to hire gay people, and his congressional website said that "homosexuality is incompatible with military service.”
https://www.indystar.com/story/news/2018/04/25/rfra-indiana-why-law-signed-mike-pence-so-controversial/546411002/
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/08/us/politics/mike-pence-needle-exchanges-indiana.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/30/us/politics/mike-pence-and-conversion-therapy-a-history.html
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/political-minds/201811/gay-conversion-therapy-associated-suicide-risk
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/23/the-danger-of-president-pence
https://www.out.com/news-opinion/2016/9/01/mike-pence-wrote-article-urging-employers-not-hire-gay-people
https://www.vox.com/2015/4/1/8326141/mike-pence-wants-it-to-be-legal-to-discriminate-against-gay-people
Pence played a leading role in the Trump administration’s efforts to ban transgender people from military service, and he serves in an administration that seeks to define transgender Americans out of existence by stripping federal recognition of their gender identity. This is a man whose abhorrence of queer people is so notorious that even President Trump reportedly once joked that Pence “wants to hang them all.” (The White House later denied it.)
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/03/trumps-new-trans-troops-ban-is-still-unconstitutional.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/21/us/politics/transgender-trump-administration-sex-definition.html
https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/trump-reportedly-jokes-about-mike-pence-wanting-hang-gays-n811086
Pence has also made it his mission to take down Planned Parenthood, leading the GOP’s war on one of the nation’s largest providers of reproductive and transgender health care.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/03/30/vice-president-pence-breaking-tie-senate-moves-against-planned-parenthood/99820022/
https://www.thenation.com/article/trumps-vice-presidential-pick-might-be-even-worse-for-women-than-he-is/
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/mar/02/transgender-healthcare-planned-parenthood-funding
These are not the actions of a decent man. The fact that Pence does vile, hateful things while well-coiffed and calm doesn’t make him decent; it makes him insidious and dangerous. Respecting each other’s rights and humanity is what makes us civilized — not keeping a civil tone while doing the opposite.
It’s easy to say nice things about Pence when you’re not personally threatened by his agenda. If Biden were being directly attacked in the same way that our community is, I think he would see Pence from a very different vantage point.
When politicians of a certain age reminisce about the “civility” that used to define Washington, it’s telling that the old guard conveniently forgets that this decorum has never been extended to all.