LGBTQ/MIKE PENCE/SPORTS: “US Olympic figure skater Adam Rippon reportedly turned down a meeting with Vice President Mike Pence after criticizing him for his stance on gay rights.
After reading a January 17 interview in which Rippon criticized Pence, the vice president’s staff asked the US Olympic Committee to set up a conversation that same day between the athlete and the politician, which Rippon ultimately declined, USA Today reported Wednesday [2-7-18], citing two sources with knowledge of the situation.
CNN has reached out to Pence’s office for comment. Rippon’s publicist Lynn Plage offered no further comment on the matter.
Last month, Rippon, who is one of two openly gay American Olympians at the Games, blasted the White House for tapping Pence to lead the official US delegation to the 2018 Winter Olympic opening ceremony… The vice president’s press secretary Alyssa Farah provided the newspaper with a rebuttal to Rippon’s remarks… As governor of Indiana, Pence signed the controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act in 2015, which allowed business to turn away gay and lesbian customers in the name of religious freedom…
Rippon, 28, and U.S. skier Gus Kenworthy, 26, are the first two openly gay Winter Olympic athletes representing Team USA. Kenworthy also took issue with the vice president leading the U.S. delegation, calling it a ‘strange choice in an interview with Ellen DeGeneres Monday. Both Rippon and Kenworthy said they would skip visiting the White House when President Donald Trump invites Team USA after the Olympics.”
-Veronica Stracqualursi, “USA Today: Openly gay Olympic athlete turns down Pence meeting,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, Feb. 7, 2018 01:22pm