The important topic no one brought up at the debate: LGBT rights

(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

published 5 October 2016

Many viewers were fuming after Tuesday night's vice presidential debate as neither moderator Elaine Quijano nor Sen. Tim Kaine brought up LGBT rights as a challenge to Gov. Mike Pence — a glaring oversight, according to The New York Times.

LGBT rights have been a quieter topic this election season, perhaps in part because last year the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage. But as of July, 40 percent of registered voters still called the treatment of LGBT people a "very important" issue, a Pew poll found, and transgender rights, such as the North Carolina bathroom law, continue to cause controversy and headlines. That's not to mention the mass murder of 49 people at the Pulse nightclub last June, an attack that almost certainly targeted the LGBT community.

Pence has spent much of his political career in opposition to LGBT rights, including the promotion of conversion therapy. And that's not to mention the biggest elephant in the room:

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Mr. Pence's most controversial moment as a national figure — and the biggest stumble of his political career — came after he signed a law in Indiana that critics had warned would allow businesses to discriminate against gay men and lesbians. Facing an enormous backlash, Mr. Pence first defended the law and then walked it back. The episode seemed likely to tarnish him as a national figure in a lasting way.... [But the] lone mention of gay rights came when Mr. Kaine noted that Mr. Putin "persecutes L.G.B.T. folks and journalists." Mr. Pence now appears likely to escape the 2016 election without any extensive airing of this formative moment in his career. [The New York Times]

"Honestly, I feel a little insulted that as my community faces a wave of discrimination, we were ignored," Lucas Grindley responded in The Advocate. "Sometimes it feels like the world read about the Supreme Court’s ruling on marriage equality and just checked a box; the gays are fine now ... The vice-presidential debate is a reminder that if we get complacent, if we don't speak up for ourselves, we will easily be ignored."

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.