In November 2016, a photograph purportedly showing a young Mike Pence with his chest exposed was circulated on social media along with the claim that it documented the vice president’s “gay past”:



The man pictured on the right above is not Vice President Mike Pence, nor does the person depicted particularly resemble him. The individual seen in the right-hand photo is Brad Patton, a porn actor, and the original image was shared on MySpace by a colleague, Martin Mazza:

Several stories have also appeared concerning Mike Pence and his support of “ conversion therapy ” for gay people. These are somewhat inaccurate: while Pence did once support the use of federal funding to treat people “seeking to change their sexual behavior,” he did not support electroshock therapy , nor did he credit conversion therapy for having saved his marriage.