In “Hillbilly Elegy,” J.D. Vance revealed that he once “convinced” himself he was gay. “I was eight or nine, maybe younger … the only thing I knew about gay men was that they preferred men to women. This described me perfectly: I disliked girls, and my best friend in the world was my buddy Bill. Oh no, I’m going to hell.” He talked to his grandmother about it, and she rebuked him: “Don’t be a f****** idiot, how would you know that you’re gay?” And later: “And even if you did want to suck d****, that would be okay. God would still love you.”
Fast-forward to Vance’s political career in a party with explicitly anti-LGBTQ+ lawmakers, where his stance on LGBTQ+ rights has drawn scrutiny. When running for the Ohio Senate in 2022, he told right-wing Christian organization Mission America he would oppose legislation that would enshrine same-sex marriage rights and the right to interracial marriage — the Respect for Marriage Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law in 2022. “Most Americans, I think, don’t really care about same-sex marriage,” Vance told Business Insider in 2023.
In July 2024, the GOP — under the leadership of Donald Trump, now with Vance at his side — revamped its platform to remove explicit opposition to same-sex marriage. But with Republicans ramping up attacks on the LGBTQ+ community in recent years, many are unconvinced that this removal suggests any real step toward inclusivity — and point to the new focus on curtailing the rights of transgender people. Sam Paisley, interim communications director for the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, told The Washington Post that the new platform “advances the scale of [Republicans’] policies and plans that hurt LGBTQ+ Americans.” “Trump’s MAGA allies in state legislatures have introduced more than 1,000 anti-LGBTQ+ bills over the last two years, and these attacks are only growing,” he said.
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