Mike Pence Denies Media Access to Meeting with Gay Irish PM Leo Varadkar

By: Paul Goldberg, Staff Writer

Vice President Mike Pence had a breakfast meeting with the first ever openly gay prime minister of Ireland Leo Varadkar but refused to allow press coverage of the meeting. In fact media outlets were only permitted to take photos of Pence and Varadkar upon the arrival of the prime minister.

Reporters were informed by Pence’s press secretary last Friday that the meeting will be a private one and that media outlets would not be invited to cover the event.

This is the second time within months that Pence has found himself in controversy with the LGBTQ community as he was made to look embarrassed during the Olympic Games held in South Korea when openly gay figure skater Adam Rippon refused to meet with the Vice President over his anti-LGBT views.

This marks the second time that Pence has found himself in yet another blatant insult upon the LGBTQ community by not allowing the press to cover him with the first ever openly gay prime minister from Ireland.

Prime Minister Leo Varadkar told press that he was disappointed that the press were not invited to cover his meeting with the vice president especially when Pence new that this would get major media coverage. I suppose his base of religious conservatives are far more important to him than being photographed with an openly gay prime minster.

“I am told Vice President Pence is not a supporter of conversion therapy even though some people have mentioned he is,” prime minister Leo Varadkar told the Irish publication TheJournal.ie before his meeting with the vice president. “But I imagine I will have the opportunity, 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.” said Varadkar.

From left, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., walk along Fifth Avenue during the St. Patrick’s Day parade Saturday, March 17, 2018, in New York. A big event since the mid-1800s, the parade has been a celebration of Irish culture and of Irish immigrants, who once faced nativist calls for their exclusion from the workforce, and from the country, when they began arriving in the city in huge numbers during the Irish Famine. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)

Following the meeting with anti-LGBTQ vice president Pence, the newly elected openly gay Irish prime minister took time out his busy schedule to attend and lead the New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade while visiting New York City.

RELATED: LGBT Politics