First openly gay US Winter Olympian has no time for VP Mike Pence

"I would absolutely not go out of my way to meet somebody who I felt has gone out of their way to not only show that they aren’t a friend of a gay person but that they think that they’re sick."

Source: AP

Adam Rippon has been hailed as the first openly gay US man to qualify for the Winter Olympics, and he recently revealed how little time he has for the Trump administration.

When Rippon found out that US Vice President Mike Pence would lead the delegation at the Winter Olympics, the figure skater absolutely went in.

"You mean Mike Pence, the same Mike Pence that funded gay conversion therapy?" Rippon asked USA Today, 
"I'm not buying it".

The claim that Pence funded conversion therapies comes from a statement in 2000, a spokesman for Pence has since denied he supported conversion therapy saying that the statement has been misinterpreted.

Traditionally before the opening ceremony, the official delegation and the athletes have a meet-and-greet but Rippon said he wasn't planning on going out of his way to meet the staunchly conservative, anti-LGBT VP.

"If it were before my event, I would absolutely not go out of my way to meet somebody who I felt has gone out of their way to not only show that they aren’t a friend of a gay person but that they think that they’re sick."

Rippon also went in on Pence standing by some of the controversial comments President Trump has recently stated, like his now infamous comment about "s***hole countries".

"To stand by some of the things that Donald Trump has said," Rippon continued, "and for Mike Pence to say he’s a devout Christian man is completely contradictory".

If he’s okay with what’s being said about people and Americans and foreigners and about different countries that are being called ‘s***holes,' I think he should really go to church.

Rippon did clarify that if he was given the chance to meet Pence after he had finished competing, "there might be a possibility to have an open conversation", but he staunchly turned down the opportunity to attend a ceremony hosted by Trump at the White House after the Olympics.

Rippon is joined in his decision not to attend by Lindsey Vonn, who stated she was representing the "people of the United States" rather than Trump. Olympic medalist Gus Kenworthy, who won Silver in Sochi and came out two years later, said he would also refuse an invitation to the White House if he was invited, adding he'd be "proud" to skip the White House visit for the LGBTQI+ community.