--- title: Rachel Maddow Tears Up About Mike Pence's Anti-LGBTQ Views description: Rachel Maddow shared frustration that Vice President-elect Mike Pence's policies on LGBTQ rights were virtually ignored during the campaign. canonical: https://time.com/4570037/rachel-maddow-mike-pence-show/ author: Samantha Cooney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-14T19:29:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:03:51.334Z og:title: Rachel Maddow Reminds Everyone of Mike Pence's Anti-LGBTQ Positions og:description: 'You think it would have gotten at least some attention’ og:url: https://time.com/4570037/rachel-maddow-mike-pence-show/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb05860369eadee06/6988ae64f887dc7f66e98359/rachel-maddow-mike-pence-gay-rights.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: MSNBC - Election Coverage - Season 2016 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Rachel Maddow Reminds Everyone of Mike Pence's Anti-LGBTQ Positions twitter:description: 'You think it would have gotten at least some attention’ twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb05860369eadee06/6988ae64f887dc7f66e98359/rachel-maddow-mike-pence-gay-rights.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Rachel Maddow Reminds Everyone of Mike Pence's Anti-LGBTQ Positions  by [Samantha Cooney](https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/)  ## Samantha Cooney Nov 14, 2016 7:29 PM UTC  Rachel Maddow, Host, "The Rachel Maddow Show" on Tuesday, November 8, 2016 from New York -- (Photo by: Heidi Gutman/MSNBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images) Rachel Maddow, Host, "The Rachel Maddow Show" on Tuesday, November 8, 2016 from New York -- (Photo by: Heidi Gutman/MSNBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)MSNBC—NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images  by [Samantha Cooney](https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/)  ## Samantha Cooney Nov 14, 2016 7:29 PM UTC Rachel Maddow teared up while [expressing frustration](http://nymag.com/thecut/2016/11/watch-rachel-maddow-detailing-mike-pences-anti-gay-policies.html) that Vice President-elect Mike Pence’s policies on LGBTQ rights were virtually ignored throughout the campaign. Maddow, the [first lesbian to host a prime-time news show](https://web.archive.org/web/20130528025844/http://www.afterellen.com/TV/2008/8/rachelmaddow), called Pence the “most vociferously and consistently anti-gay statewide elected official in the country.” During his career as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and governor of Indiana, Pence has said that federal funding should be [diverted away from HIV/AIDS treatment programs and advocated for public funding toward conversion therapy,](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/11/us/politics/trump-victory-alarms-gay-and-transgender-groups.html) voted against [a law that would prohibit discrimination of LGBT individuals in the workplace](https://www.congress.gov/bill/110th-congress/house-bill/03685) and said [gay couples signaled a “societal collapse.”](http://time.com/4406337/mike-pence-gay-rights-lgbt-religious-freedom/) **_Read more_**_:_ [_Here’s What Mike Pence Said on LGBT Issues Over the Years_](http://time.com/4406337/mike-pence-gay-rights-lgbt-religious-freedom/) “Mike Pence is really, really out there on his anti-gay politics,” Maddow said. “He’s on the very edge of the branch, on the very edge of the twig, on the end of the branch, on the last leaf on that twig.” Maddow said that it was surprising Pence’s stance on gay rights didn’t come up during the campaign — especially because President-elect Donald Trump hasn’t taken a firm stance on the issue. “You think it would have gotten at least some attention,” Maddow said . “But in fact, no one paid much attention to it all. And honestly, I think it’s because no one paid much attention to Mike Pence at all.” (In an interview with _60 Minutes_ that aired on Sunday, after Maddow’s segment, Trump [said that he was “fine” that the issue of gay marriage had been settled by the Supreme Court](http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/donald-trump-same-sex-marriage-231310).) Watch the segment above. \[[The Cut\]](http://nymag.com/thecut/2016/11/watch-rachel-maddow-detailing-mike-pences-anti-gay-policies.html) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4570037/rachel-maddow-mike-pence-show/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4570037/rachel-maddow-mike-pence-show/"},"headline":"Rachel Maddow Reminds Everyone of Mike Pence's Anti-LGBTQ Positions","datePublished":"2016-11-14T19:29:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:03:51.334Z","description":"'You think it would have gotten at least some attention’","url":"https://time.com/4570037/rachel-maddow-mike-pence-show/","keywords":["motto"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb05860369eadee06/6988ae64f887dc7f66e98359/rachel-maddow-mike-pence-gay-rights.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Cooney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb05860369eadee06/6988ae64f887dc7f66e98359/rachel-maddow-mike-pence-gay-rights.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"MSNBC - Election Coverage - Season 2016","caption":"MSNBC - Election Coverage - Season 2016","creditText":"MSNBC—NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4570037/rachel-maddow-mike-pence-show/","name":"Rachel Maddow Reminds Everyone of Mike Pence's Anti-LGBTQ Positions"}}]}] ```