On Monday, July 15, former President Donald Trump announced his vice-president pick. His selection was J.D. Vance, a Republican Ohio senator elected in 2022. A former Marine and bestselling author of “Hillbilly Elegy,” Vance is relatively new to politics, being only the second Ohio senator in history to have no prior political experience.
The news of Vance’s selection came two days after Trump survived an assassination attempt at an outdoor rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Here’s where Vance stands on issues that could affect the LGBTQ+ community.
“Protect Children’s Innocence Act”
In July 2023, Vance introduced bill H.R. 8731, also known as the “Protect Children’s Innocence Act” which would ban gender-affirming care for minors and make it a felony for any health care professional to provide such care. It also allows any minor who underwent gender-affirming care to bring a civil lawsuit against said healthcare practitioner, and prohibits any federal funds to be used for gender-affirming care. The bill is sponsored by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. So far, it has only been introduced and has not advanced.
Stance on same-sex marriage
Prior to being elected in 2022, Vance was asked by conservative publication Mission America how he would vote on a bill to codify the right to same-sex marriage. Vance responded that he would not and that “the religious liberty piece of this is very bad.”
Groomer rhetoric
In an interview with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson in April 2022, Vance referred to those who support gender-affirming care for transgender youth as groomers. The word “groomer” has been co-opted in recent years by several conservative groups and lawmakers as a way to dehumanize and villainize the LGBTQ+ community.
Vance told Carlson, “If you don’t want to be called a groomer don’t sexualize 6-7 y/o children…This is about parental rights. What kind of a country do we want to live in? Where families control what values their children grow up in or where Joe Biden and pharma companies do that.”
Three days before the interview, Vance also tweeted, “I’ll stop calling people ‘groomers’ when they stop freaking out about bills that prevent the sexualization of my children.”
Spoke out against employment protections for LGBTQ+ workers
In 2020, prior to running for office, Vance tweeted his disapproval of the Supreme Court’s decision that LGBTQ+ people should be included in the prohibition on sex discrimination in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The ruling was issued by the Supreme Court in June 2020 by a 6-3 majority.
In response, Vance tweeted, “The conservative legal movement has accomplished two things: libertarian political economy (enforced by judges) and betrayal of social conservatives and traditionalists.”
Connection to Project 2025
When Vance’s name was being discussed as a potential vice president nominee, his connection to the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation was explored. Heritage Foundation is behind the 900-page “Project 2025” playbook for a potential second Trump administration. (Check out our coverage of Project 2025 and Trump’s Agenda 47.)
In 2017, Vance penned the introduction to the Heritage Foundation’s “Index of Culture and Opportunity,” which the foundation said “evaluates a range of factors needed to sustain freedom and opportunity in America.”
After becoming a senator, Vance spoke at the Heritage Foundation’s April 2023 Leadership Summit.
Reproductive rights
J.D. Vance’s stance on reproductive rights is now more difficult to find as his official page, jdvance.com, has been taken over by a Trump National Committee donation page. However, using the Wayback Machine, News is Out was able to access his platform as of July 1. According to his website, Vance is “100% pro-life.”
“Eliminating abortion is first and foremost about protecting the unborn, but it’s also about making our society more pro-child and pro-family,” Vance said.