Vice President Mike Pence received an unwelcome reception during Friday’s visit to Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy in Houston, Texas.
Pence’s motorcade was forced to navigate protestors bearing signs that read “Vice Bigot” and “Go away Satan” as the vice president was escorted to the Baker Institute to deliver a speech condemning Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, a socialist dictator guilty of human rights abuses and widespread corruption.
Rough crowd
Dozens of students gathered across the street from the Baker Institute bearing rainbow flags and signs showing support for the LGBT community. A student group called Rice Left helped organize the protests and made arrangements with university police “to ensure a successful, peaceful demonstration.”
“I am really excited about how all communities at Rice have pulled together in unity behind this event. There’s a 1,000 different reasons in this crowd to oppose Mike Pence, but everyone is here behind the same idea,” said Franz Brotzen, the president of a leftist student group called the Young Democrats.
“We are protesting Mike Pence’s ideologies and positions. We believe in the First Amendment right for Mr. Pence to come and speak at our university, but that also affords us the right to contest what he stands for vocally and in unison,” Brotzen said.
Even before Pence arrived early Friday afternoon, protesters could be heard chanting in unison. “Hey, Hey! Ho, Ho! Mike Pence has got to go!” they shouted.
“Racist, sexist, anti-gay, right-wing bigot, go away!”
“Mikey, Mikey, can’t you see? Your budget cuts are killing me!”
Freshman Drew Carter, president of the university’s Black Student Association, said that students were merely practicing their right to free speech. “Sometimes you move publicly, sometimes privately. Sometimes quietly, sometimes at the top of your voice,” Carter explained, quoting former Secretary of State and Baker Institute founder James A. Baker III.
“Right now,” he said, “we’re moving at the top of our voice.”
Pence has been accused of waging a culture war against the LGBT community, an allegation that does not stand up to scrutiny. For example, during a recent Late Show appearance with Stephen Colbert, actress Ellen Page falsely accused Pence of supporting “conversion therapy.”
Misunderstood
Much of the anti-Pence animus comes from the then-senator’s support for Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act in 2015, a very specific law that specifically prohibits the government from burdening a “person’s exercise of religion.” Opponents of the law argued that it would be used by Indiana Christians to refuse service to members of the LGBT community, an outcome that Pence has denied.
“If I saw a restaurant owner refuse to serve a gay couple, I wouldn’t eat there anymore,” Pence assured voters. Eventually, the bill was amended to specifically forbid discrimination against the LGBT community.
However, the damage was done, and liberal students at Rice have used the vice president’s voting record to suggest that he is an outspoken bigot. But some members of the mostly progressive student body were opposed to Friday’s raucous demonstrations.
After the event’s organizers opened the podium up to unofficial speakers, some students urged patience and understanding. “But [Pence] hates us!” a student in the crowd shouted in response to calls for unity.
“Perhaps, but we have to have to respect the man for who he is,” he said before leaving the stage. “… If you don’t respect him, why would he respect you?”
Across the street, Pence was giving a speech of his own, condemning a leftist autocrat whose political ideology wasn’t too indistinguishable from the student protestors across the street.
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