US Vice President Mike Pence is coming, and Amnesty Ireland want to put on a disco for him at Dáil Éireann.
Pence’s visit has been moved forward, and Amnesty has started a crowdfunding campaign to make the disco happen in time.
On their crowdfunding page, they said:
“He’ll be in Dublin on the 3rd of September. We want to have a Disco outside the Dáil (at 1 pm) in protest. A celebration of all the people that Pence and Trump’s cruel policies are hurting; women, refugees, migrants, and LGBTI people.
“We want to show him, and people that support him, that we’re a different country now and that he can’t go back to the USA and say that Ireland supports him, Trump or their policies of hate.
“We’re going to need plenty of colourful banners, a sound system for music, a stage for dancing and maybe even a disco ball! Leftover funds will go to support our other related campaigns.
“And we’re going to invite Mr Pence to our disco. We hope he RSVP’s.”
Mike #Pence has changed his plans & is coming to Dublin early. So we are changing our plans to make sure we let him know that Ireland stands in solidarity with those targeted by #Trump Tuesday 1-2pm outside the Dail. Please donate & join us. #HumanRights https://t.co/ZHI3g7vQCv
— Colm O'Gorman 🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈🇮🇪 (@Colmogorman) August 31, 2019
Pence, who is known to have defended the horrific conditions in US immigrant detention centres in recent months, tweeted his excitement at celebrating his “Irish roots”, to which many Twitter users have responded in disgust. Pence’s Grandfather immigrated to the United States from County Sligo in 1923, highlighting the hypocrisy of the Vice President’s anti-immigrant views.
Pence’s trip is expected to cost up to €10 million in security costs.
Update on the Disco outside the Dáil event! @VP Mike Pence is coming sooner than planned, and will be in Dublin on Tuesday 3rd September. So we will be too! See you there at 1pm… nothing is going to stop us 😉
Event details here: https://t.co/eHCIF35NEG pic.twitter.com/yJOmpY8Pnr
— Amnesty Ireland (@AmnestyIreland) August 31, 2019
Earlier this year, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and his partner Matt Barrett attended what could only be imagined as a very uncomfortable breakfast with Pence and his wife Karen, considering the Vice President’s track record on LGBT+ rights.
Pence is known to have voted against hate crime laws during his time in Congress as well as allegedly endorsing cruel gay conversion therapy.
Additionally, Pence opposed the repeal of the US military’s controversial “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in 2010, saying that he did not want to see the military become ‘a backdrop for social experimentation’. All in all, it’s safe to say that Pence will never be the flavour of the month in the LGBT+ community.
To make Disco at the Dáil happen, donate here. You can find full details of the event here.
© 2019 GCN (Gay Community News). All rights reserved.
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