LGBTQ Activists Had A St. Patrick's Day Message For Mike Pence
Vice President Mike Pence visited Savannah, Georgia, on Saturday to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, but his appearance had some revelers seeing rainbow instead of green.
Pence, along with his wife, Karen, and mother, Nancy Pence-Fritsch, watched the city’s St. Paddy’s Day parade with Mayor Eddie DeLoach. The vice president, who is of Irish descent, and his entourage also joined the marchers for a few blocks and posed for photographs along the way.
Pence’s appearance, however, got a brisk reception from some vocal demonstrators along the parade route. A number of attendees held massive rainbow flags as the vice president, a vocal opponent of LGBTQ rights, passed by.
Some shouted, “Savannah’s so gay,” while others held placards with messages like “Love is love” and “The devil went down to Georgia.”
The moment was captured for posterity on Twitter.
Yesterday, VP Mike Pence visited Savannah’s St. Patrick’s Day parade for 1 hour, costing an absurd amount to taxpayers & lost sales to businesses who count on that day every year. Protestors made sure there were rainbows in every photo op with the bigot. @Amy_Siskind @woke_folk pic.twitter.com/vijzvIOwbn
— Tracy Brisson (@tracybrisson) March 18, 2018
VP Pence came to savannah to march in our parade- and every. single. picture taken of him has a pride flag in the background. proud of my city 🍀👩❤️💋👩💜👨❤️👨 pic.twitter.com/0wADWbWfCE
— it's fran! (@frannipan) March 17, 2018
I love my beautiful city of Savannah's message to VP Pence.
We live in love and peace here. Pence, Love Wins #Savannah #StPatricksDay pic.twitter.com/ha0UtdN109— SisterhoodTribe555🌈⚖️ (@SisterhoodTribe) March 17, 2018
Pence’s visit to Savannah came just weeks after a highly publicized online kerfuffle with Olympic figure skater Adam Rippon, who is openly gay.
The vice president also made headlines last Friday when he held a breakfast meeting with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, the first openly gay man elected to lead his country. Varadkar had said he planned to address LGBTQ rights during the meeting, which was closed to the media.
Varadkar says he will raise ‘wider issue’ of LGBT rights with Vice President Mike Pence if he has the opportunity pic.twitter.com/CZh20x7Nx8
— TheJournal Politics (@TJ_Politics) March 14, 2018
“I am told Vice President Pence is not a supporter of conversion therapy even though some people have mentioned he is,” Varadkar said. “I am going to be meeting him over breakfast on Friday morning, so if I have the opportunity I will certainly be mentioning the wider issue of equal rights and freedoms for LGBT citizens.”
The prime minister didn’t seem too vexed about their meeting being closed, noting, “It allows us have maybe a frank conversation that we wouldn’t be able to have if the media was present.”
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.