Donald Trump's VP pick, Sen. JD "Hillbilly Effigy" Vance, is being outed for his anti-LGBTQ+ takes.
Vance's longtime critics have been keeping a tally that points directly at his open hostility towards the LBGTQ+ community. As a senator, he's introduced bills proposing limited access to transgender healthcare and restriting the ability to mark additional gender identities on US passports.
The Independent reports that the cravenly ambitious former Trump critic has also used his privileged position in the Senate to block essential diplomatic appointments--all because he's seemingly obsessed with their pro-LGBTQ+ stances.
Vance is personally responsible for holds placed on President Joe Biden's nominees which delayed the confirmation of more than 30 diplomats to senior positions until this April.
Scaredypants Vance is widely known in the State Department for grilling nominees with questions about LGBTQ+ rights, Pride flags, diversity, and inclusion, which he refers to as “woke” issues.”
The questionnaire, which was first shared by the Washington Post, really goes there with its probe.
“The publics of many of our allies, and those countries we seek to build stronger relationships with, have traditional Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or Hindu moral values,” reads one section of the questionnaire. “If confirmed, how would you explain to them what the United States’ promoting ‘human rights for LGBTQ people’ would look like in their country?”
But Vance wasn't done. For some reason, he alone needed to know more.
He asked the diplomatic nominees how they responded to a 2021 Biden administration directive allowing the State Department to fly the LGBTQ+ Pride flag over US embassies in other countries after the Trump administration had forbidden the practice.
“Where, if anywhere, do you believe it is not appropriate to ‘celebrate and prominently support local and regional Pride celebrations’?” Vance asked.
Hateful Hillbilly Effigy has defended the questionnaire as a "sensible set of questions" about how US diplomats would "balance progressive causes with local sensibilities."
“If you are injecting your own personal politics in a way that harms American national security and diplomacy, that’s not fine,” Vance told the outlet at the time. “The questions all try to get at those issues.”
The irony, it burns white white hot.