INDIANAPOLIS — First reported on Friday in The Advocate, Mike Braun’s running mate LG Micah Beckwith said he will use the office to fire any state government employees he oversees who use pronouns in their email signature.

Remember, Braun said on the convention stage in June according to POLITICO’s Adam Wren about his running mate Beckwith: “Everything you believe in, I have as well.”

It’s another blatant example of how Micah Beckwith’s Christian nationalism threatens to cause chaos in the Statehouse.

“If I get an email from anyone in my office or in agencies that I oversee as lieutenant governor, and their signature has their pronouns on it, they’re going to be gone,” Beckwith told a supportive crowd. He justified this draconian stance by claiming that employees who acknowledge gender diversity “don’t have a grasp on reality,” further escalating his rhetoric against Indiana’s LGBTQ+ community.” [The Advocate, Indiana GOP lieutenant governor nominee says he’ll fire state workers with email signature pronouns.]

It is also illegal as employment discrimination under federal law upheld in recent terms by the United States Supreme Court in a decision written by conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch.

These disgusting comments by Beckwith are only par for the course in his extreme campaign for the LG office.

He would endanger Hoosier state government workers for practicing their freedom of expression while creating a workplace of fear and a culture of hate from the state’s second highest office.

“Micah Beckwith is wholly unfit to be anywhere in state government, as he has proven over again throughout this campaign,” said Indiana Democratic Party Chair Mike Schmuhl. “To threaten to mass fire employees over such a simple show of freedom of expression is yet another example. All Hoosiers deserve to be treated with dignity and respect and Beckwith has shown his LG office would know no such virtues toward anyone who disagrees with him.”

“There is only one choice for an accountable, responsible state government that will prioritize the commonsense kitchen table issues Hoosiers are worried about: Jennifer McCormick and Terry Goodin.”

Beckwith has made attacks on LGBTQ+ Hoosiers a priority in his campaign, using his social media accounts to regularly post anti-gay and anti-trans content.

- On October 9, Beckwith posted an article State Affairs wrote about him which asserted that he opposes moves towards equality such as gay marriage, and is committed to challenging Mike Braun’s leadership if elected. 

- Beckwith was a guest on a podcast from the Clearly Speaking Network. During the episode, he said “Because when people don’t govern their own lives based on virtue in their own hearts, then you have to have a really strict government telling people what they can and can’t do.” 

- On Facebook, he reposted an image implying that God dislikes members of the LGBTQ+ community and their use of the rainbow.

- On September 10, Beckwith posted an article on Facebook from a conservative website that blasted a pride event hosted in Fishers. In a comment on the post, Micah said “Sexually grooming children has been a part of the Fishers culture for a long time.”

- Beckwith posted a collage to his Facebook account featuring a fake photo of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg wearing a breastfeeding device while holding his child.

- On X, Beckwith reposted AG Rokita’s transphobic Tweet in addition to publishing his own, calling an Algerian female Olympic boxer “a dude” who “beat up a girl.” All despite the fact that gender transitions are banned in Algeria.