Donald Trump’s VP Mike Pence published articles urging news organisations not to hire homosexuals, an investigation has uncovered.
Mr Pence, the Governor of Indiana, was unveiled as Mr Trump’s Vice Presidential pick last month.
Pence stirred up international outrage last year when he signed the controversial ‘Religious Freedom Restoration Act’, which gives businesses the right to discriminate against gay people on the grounds of religion.
Governor Pence has previously suggested that HIV prevention funding be drained in order to fund state-sponsored ‘gay cure’ therapy, and earlier this year appeared unable to answer when asked whether it should be legal to fire people because of their sexuality.
But a fresh investigation from Right Wing Watch has found Pence published extreme anti-LGBT articles when he was the head of the Indiana Policy Review in the 90s.
In the IPR’s journal, Pence himself penned an article lamenting “an endless line of pro-choice women, AIDS activists and proponents of affirmative action” at the 1996 GOP convention.
Pence headed the IPR from 1991 to 1994.
In an item published under his tenure in the December 1993 issue, the publication criticised The Wall Street Journal for taking part in a job fair for gay journalists.
It suggested that “gaydom” was a “pathological condition”, arguing that gay journalists would be biased in their coverage because of their sexuality.
It argued: “The more extreme of the gay movement consider themselves members of a sexual determined political party.”
1993’s August edition of IPR included an article attacking gay people serving in the army.
It claimed: “Homosexuals are not as a group able bodied. They are known to carry extremely high rates of disease brought on because of the nature of their sexual practices and the promiscuity which is a hallmark of their lifestyle.”