Vice President elect Mike Pence gets a lesson from Hamilton
By Ed Diokno
There are some privileges to getting elected as Vice President. Gov. Mike Pence took advantage of his newly acquired position of influence by securing the-most-difficult-to-obtain tickets to the musical Hamilton.
I wonder if he got the message from the performance Friday night.
For certain, he received the message from the cast. As the play ended, the actor who played Aaron Burr, Brandon Victor Dixon, acknowledged that Mr. Pence was in the audience, thanked him for attending and added, “We hope you will hear us out.” He then began to read the message written by the show’s creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Vice-president elect Pence, who has also advocated for funding for gay conversion therapy, got booed by a significant number of audience members.
I wonder if Pence — who has said “Congress should oppose any effort to put gay and lesbian relationships on an equal legal status with heterosexual marriage,” and “Congress should oppose any effort to recognize homosexual’s (sic) as a ‘discreet (sic) and insular minority’ entitled to the protection of anti-discrimination laws” — knew that the cast was filled with queer people, people of color, immigrants and children of immigrants.
According to one audience member, the audience gave a standing ovation during the play at the line, “Immigrants, we get the job done,” one theatergoer, Christy Colburn, wrote on Twitter.
She added: “Crowd went NUTS at King George’s lines ‘when people say they hate you’ & ‘do you know how hard it is to lead?’ He had to stop the song.”
Upon hearing of the incident, President-elect Donald Trump couldn’t hold back and had this to say on Twitter on the following day:
Our wonderful future V.P. Mike Pence was harassed last night at the theater by the cast of Hamilton, cameras blazing.This should not happen!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 19, 2016
The Theater must always be a safe and special place.The cast of Hamilton was very rude last night to a very good man, Mike Pence. Apologize!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 19, 2016
The cast was not “harassing” Pence. I thought they were very respectful. Dixon had this to say in response:
@realDonaldTrump conversation is not harassment sir. And I appreciate @mike_pence for stopping to listen.
— Brandon Victor Dixon (@BrandonVDixon) November 19, 2016
Proud of @HamiltonMusical. Proud of @BrandonVDixon, for leading with love.
And proud to remind you that ALL are welcome at the theater.— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) November 19, 2016
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