Jennifer Lawrence jokingly yells at a former Vice President Mike Pence at the 2024 GLAAD Awards Photo: YouTube screenshot
Actress Jennifer Lawrence has blasted former Vice President Mike Pence for his past support of conversion therapy. She made her comment at the GLAAD Awards in New York City on Saturday while introducing the Vito Russo Award for country musician Orville Peck. The award honors LGBTQ+ media professionals who have made a significant difference promoting equality.
“I love the gay community. In fact, I was in love with a homosexual. I tried to convert him for years, but now I know conversion therapy doesn’t work,” Lawrence said at the event. “Did you hear me, Mike Pence? I said conversion therapy isn’t real, even though I know you think it worked on you.”
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The audience laughed and moaned at her insinuation that Pence has tried to repress his own same-sex attraction. Later in her speech, Lawrence joked that Pence was also in New York “receiving a [Nickelodeon] Kid’s Choice Award for weirdest dick.”
Lawrence’s conversion therapy joke alluded to the fact that Pence’s 2000 congressional campaign website said that instead of spending money on national HIV prevention efforts through the Ryan White Care Act, “Resources should be directed toward those institutions which provide assistance to those seeking to change their sexual behavior.” The line of his website comment was widely interpreted as expressing his support for conversion therapy — though Pence has denied such support.
Conversion therapy is the widely disavowed form of pseudoscientific mental torture that purports to change one’s gender identity or sexual orientation. When opposing the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act around 2009, Pence said he worried that LGBTQ+-inclusive hate crime legislation would “silence” conversion therapy groups.
Conversion therapy for minors is banned in Washington D.C. and 23 states, though the bans in Alabama, Georgia, and Florida have been put on hold by preliminary injunctions while they’re challenged in federal courts. Conversion therapy is also partially banned in four other states.
Lawrence humorously began her GLAAD Awards speech by saying, “Hi gays. I love seeing so many humans who can top their field while still being power bottoms.”
Peck has used his platform to speak about the homophobia he has faced in the music industry and about LGBTQ+ fans who have felt alienated by traditional country music.
In interviews, he often discusses the historical presence of queerness and Black people in the Old West and country music, challenging the notion that these spaces have always been strictly white and heterosexual. He has also noted that the Western frontier during the 1800s was a place of experimentation, and that early country music included queer themes.
