Whoopi Goldberg came up with a poignant analogy while defending openly gay figure skater Adam Rippon’s refusal to meet Vice President Mike Pence before the Winter Olympics.
“I think it would be like asking a Jewish person to sit down and understand where the Nazi is coming from,” Goldberg said on “The View” last week. “I think that would be a difficult thing.”
The co-host’s comments came after she read a laundry list of the ways Pence has pushed back against LGBTQ rights over the years.
“He says keeping gays from marrying was not discrimination but an enforcement of God’s idea,” she read. “In 2006 he said gay couples signal societal collapse, and in 2007 he opposed the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, a law that would prohibit discrimination against LGBTQ folks. He doesn’t believe the repeal of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ was good, and he rejected the Obama administration directive on transgender bathrooms.”
When it was reported last week that Rippon turned down a meeting last month with Pence, who led the official U.S. delegation to the Games, the veep tweeted out his support for the Olympian and attacked the media for spreading “fake news.”
Rippon later clarified his decision, saying that he would be willing to sit down with Pence for an “open conversation,” but it would have to wait until after the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Rippon is expected to compete Thursday night Eastern time in the men’s short program.