As he was on his way to meet with Iceland’s President Gudni Johannesson on Wednesday, Vice President Mike Pence got a reminder that not everyone agrees with his intolerant stance on the issue of LGBT rights.
The Advania technology company ― located in the building opposite Hofdi House in the capital Reykjavik, where Pence convened with Johannesson ― swapped its own flags for Pride ones on the morning of Pence’s visit.
“We just felt the need to celebrate diversity today and wanted to show that by flying the flags,” said Ægir Már Þórisson, the company’s director, according to the Iceland Monitor website.
so at his stop at Höfði (house where Reagan-Gorbachev summit in Reykjavík occurred), @vp was met by this not-so-subtle display and then the mayor said he grieved the loss of the INF treaty that emerged from the summit but was recently withdrawn from by the trump administration pic.twitter.com/89P8nQmupc
— Justin Sink (@justinsink) September 4, 2019
But the trolling didn’t end there. President Johannesson and first lady Eliza Reid also wore rainbow bracelets during their meeting with the Veep:
also, Iceland‘s President Jóhannesson wore a rainbow bracelet (as he did while meeting with Putin) during photo op with Pence today pic.twitter.com/kCAUzUiafo
— Justin Sink (@justinsink) September 4, 2019
Not that I needed another reason to love #Iceland‘s First Lady #ElizaReid, but all hail the white pantsuit and rainbow bracelet she donned for her meeting with #MikePence. #equality Pic by MBL pic.twitter.com/BdbkdFe8nC
— Melissa Jun Rowley (@MelissaRowley) September 5, 2019
Over the years, Pence has made some incredibly intolerant remarks regarding the LGBT community, as Time noted in 2016:
- Citing a Harvard researcher, Pence said in his speech, “societal collapse was always brought about following an advent of the deterioration of marriage and family.” Pence also called being gay a choice and said keeping gays from marrying was not discrimination, but an enforcement of “God’s idea.”
- The Employment Non-Discrimination Act would have banned discrimination against people based on sexual orientation. Pence voted against that law in 2007 and later said the law “wages war on freedom and religion in the workplace.”
- Pence favored the longtime military policy of not letting soldiers openly identify as gay. In 2010, Pence told CNN he did not want to see the military become “a backdrop for social experimentation.” The policy ended in 2011.
Considering those statements, Pence deserves to see rainbow flags everywhere he goes.
Featured Image Via the BBC