Biden campaign and LGBTQ+ groups decry Trump’s pick of J.D. Vance as running mate

On Monday, two days after surviving an assassination attempt inPennsylvania, former PresidentDonald Trump announcedRepublicanOhio U.S. Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate for the 2024 presidential election. This announcement sparked fierce opposition from the Biden-Harris campaign andLGBTQ+ advocates, who view Vance as a direct threat to the progress made in recent years.

Jen O’Malley Dillon, chair of Biden-Harris 2024, did not hold back in her condemnation of Vance, emphasizing the dangerous implications of his alignment with Trump’s extreme agenda.

“Donald Trump picked J.D. Vance as his running mate because Vance will do what Mike Pence wouldn’t on January 6: bend over backwards to enable Trump and his extreme MAGA agenda, even if it means breaking the law and no matter the harm to the American people,” Dillon said in a statement.

President of theHuman Rights Campaign Kelley Robinson also expressed grave concerns. “Donald Trump has been a bully for years – and his pick of MAGA clone JD Vance is a reminder that nothing has changed. This is anything but a unity ticket,” Robinson said in a statement.

Robinson highlighted the stakes of the election.

“We are not simply choosing between two campaigns. We are choosing between two fundamentally different visions of America. One, with Trump and MAGA ‘yes man’ JD Vance at the helm, where our rights and freedoms are under siege,” Robinson said. “The other, with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris leading the way, where we are advancing toward freedom and equality for all. Everything is at stake and the contrast could not be clearer. We must defeat Trump, Vance, and their brand of chaos and division, and send Joe Biden and Kamala Harris back to the White House.”

Vance’s legislative history is a testament to his far-right positions, which have consistently targeted LGBTQ+ rights and reproductive freedoms.According to GLAAD, he introduced the so-called “Protect Children’s Innocence Act,” a piece of legislation that misrepresents transgender healthcare and aims to criminalize medical professionals providing gender-affirming care to minors. The act proposes a Class C felony penalty for these procedures, which are falsely described as “gruesome” and “irreversible.”

Vance has also been vocal in his opposition to marriage equality, stating he would vote “no” on the Respect for Marriage Act. His inflammatory rhetoric includes calling people opposed to classroom censorship of sexual orientation and gender identity “groomers” and pushing the false narrative that such discussions sexualize children. He claims that censoring LGBTQ+ conversations is about “parents’ rights,” ignoring the estimated two million children with LGBTQ+ parents who benefit from inclusive education.

Moreover, Vance has been a staunch supporter of policies that harm reproductive rights, opposing abortion even in cases of rape and incest. He criticized exceptions for survivors, stating that “two wrongs don’t make a right” and referring to these circumstances as “inconvenient.” His legislative actions reflect a consistent effort to limit reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights, including railing against the Affordable Care Act and its protections for people with preexisting conditions.

GLAAD’s president and CEO, Sarah Kate Ellis, emphasized the importance of media coverage that includes Vance’s anti-LGBTQ+ record. “LGBTQ Americans are taxpayers, family members, colleagues, classmates, neighbors, and friends, and our concerns are the same as any Americans: our freedom to be ourselves to live in safety and dignity, the right to make private health care decisions, read books of our choosing, marry who we love, and not be discriminated against for who we are,” Ellis said in a statement. “Our concerns are not a ‘culture war’ sideshow—they are central to the core issues of this election, and the freedoms all Americans want to preserve and protect.”

In contrast, the Biden-Harris administration has been hailed as the most pro-equality in history. Since taking office in 2021, it has achieved significant milestones, including Biden signing the Respect for Marriage Act, which codifies federal protections for same-sex and interracial marriages. The administration has also implemented rules protecting LGBTQ+ youth from discrimination in schools and the foster care system and ensured that LGBTQ+ patients receive non-discriminatory healthcare.