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Before becoming Donald Trump’s running mate in 2024, J.D. Vance was known, at least within the State Department, for grilling nominees with questionnaires on LGBTQ+ rights, the Pride flag, diversity and inclusion, and other so-called “woke” issues. This was part of a series of holds he placed on Biden’s nominees, delaying the confirmation of more than 30 diplomats to senior positions until April of this year.
“Many of our allies and those with whom we seek to build stronger relationships hold traditional Christian, Jewish, Muslim or Hindu moral values,” one passage from the survey obtained by The Washington Post read. “How would you explain to them what U.S.-promoted ‘LGBTQ human rights’ would mean in their countries if approved?”
Another question asks how the candidates would respond to the Biden administration’s 2021 directive to allow the State Department to fly the LGBTQ+ pride flag at U.S. embassies after the Trump administration banned it.
“Where, if at all, do you think it is inappropriate to ‘celebrate and actively support local and regional pride celebrations’?” Vance asked.
President Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance, has been accused of pushing anti-LGBTQ+ views when questioning State Department nominees (Getty Images)
The survey is part of what critics say is Vance’s larger hostility toward LGBTQ+ people. The Ohio senator has introduced bills that propose restricting transgender people’s access to health care and restricting their right to list an additional gender identity on their U.S. passport.
“The United States has a responsibility to uphold human rights around the world, including the freedom for LGBTQ+ people to live and love without fear,” Human Rights Campaign spokesman Brandon Wolf told The Washington Post. “Donald Trump and J.D. Vance are fellow anti-LGBTQ+ stalwarts who have made it clear that if they hold the keys to the Oval Office, they would destroy American values on the world stage.”
Vance defends the survey, whose existence was reported by Politico last summer, as a smart set of questions about how U.S. diplomats balance progressive causes with local sensibilities.
“If you’re bringing personal politics into the mix in a way that’s damaging to our national security and diplomacy, that’s not OK,” Vance told the outlet at the time. “All of the questions are trying to touch on those issues.”
“You can call it ‘far left,’ you can call it ‘woke,'” he added. “To me, this leans toward cultural progressivism, and it alienates half of our country, and frankly, it alienates about 80 percent of the countries these people will be representing.”
In response to The Post reporting on the survey’s contents and a headline that called it evidence of his “anti-woke ideology,” Vance said: I have written“They Got Me” aired on Saturday’s X.
