Mike Pence is to be extended an invitation to the hometown of his Irish ancestors in Tubbercurry, Sligo

Mike Pence, Vice-President elect of the US and advocate of conversion therapy, is said to be able to trace his heritage back to the western town of Tubbercurry, Sligo.

Pence’s grandfather Richard Michael Cawley is said to have emigrated from Doocastle area just outside of Tubbercurry in Ireland to Chicago in 1923.

Roger McCarrick, a Tubbercurry Chamber of Commerce spokesperson, said: “Local people are delighted.”

“We will be writing to him officially to invite him to the home of his ancestors,” McCarrick said.

“Regardless of policies he is still an ex-Tubbercurry man as far as we are concerned.”

“There has been a sense of pride that a descendant of here could aspire to such high office,” McCarrick said.

“He has been Governor of Indiana since 2013 and it’s possible he could run for President in four or eight years’ time and he could be on the biggest political stage of all for the next 16 years.”

LGBT Enemy

In 2000 during Pence’s first successful run for Congress the Vice-President elect wrote on his website, seeming to affirm his stance on conversion therapy by proposing that funding be provided for institutions that facilitate the widely discredited ‘treatment’.

“Resources should be directed toward those institutions which provide assistance to those seeking to change their sexual behaviour,” Pence said.

Besides seeming to advocate for conversion therapy Pence also advocated against marriage equality, indicating that LGBT people do not deserve the same rights as non-LGBT people.

“Congress should oppose any effort to put gay and lesbian relationships on an equal legal status with heterosexual marriage.”

In addition to denying LGBT people equal rights with regard to marriage Pence  proposed that LGBT people should not be protected under anti-discrimination laws.

“Congress should oppose any effort to recognise homosexual’s [sic] as a ‘discreet [sic] and insular minority’ entitled to the protection of anti-discrimination laws similar to those extended to women and ethnic minorities.”

Image: Gage Skidmore (License)