Gay Olympic skater Adam Rippon isn't happy with the choice of Mike Pence to lead U.S. delegation

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Gay Olympic skater Adam Rippon isn't happy with the choice of Mike Pence to lead U.S. delegation

Figure skater Adam Rippon is not happy with the choice of Vice President Mike Pence to lead the U.S. delegation to the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, next month.

"You mean Mike Pence, the same Mike Pence that funded gay conversion therapy?" Rippon, a first-time Olympian who came out as gay in late 2015, said during an interview with USA Today on Tuesday. "I'm not buying it."

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Back in 2000, Pence made this statement on his congressional campaign website in 2000: "Resources should be directed toward those institutions which provide assistance to those seeking to change their sexual behavior."

Many have interpreted that comment to be in support of gay conversion therapy ...

Rippon said of Pence: "I don't think he has a real concept of reality. To stand by some of the things that Donald Trump has said and for Mike Pence to say he's a devout Christian man is completely contradictory ..."

Rippon ... told USA Today that he may not participate in the traditional meet-and-greet between the athletes and the delegation before the opening ceremony.

"If 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't a friend of a gay person but that they think that they're sick," Rippon said.
"I wouldn't go out of my way to meet somebody like that."

" ... I don't think the current administration represents the values that I was taught growing up. Mike Pence doesn't stand for anything that I really believe in."