August 29, 2020
Watch: Richard Grenell's RNC Speech Does Not Address LGBTQ+ Issues
Kevin Schattenkirk READ TIME: 1 MIN.
Richard Grenell, openly gay former acting intelligence director and ambassador to Germany, spoke at the RNC on Wednesday evening and failed to mention both his homosexuality and any pro-LGBTQ policy stances of President Trump as he seeks re-election.
This is particular notable because Grenell recently appeared in an ad praising the current President as being "the most pro-gay" of any in US history – an assertion that does not reflect the reality of roll backs to LGBTQ+ rights under the current administration.
In fact, where LGBTQ+ right are concerned, the GOP has recycled its 2016 platform for the current Presidential election, opposing marriage equality and bans on conversion therapy.
Instead, Grenell's speech traded in conspiracy theories about Democratic candidate and former Vice President Biden, and the Obama administration's alleged spying on the 2016 Trump campaign, and derided the Democratic-led investigation into Russian interference into the last Presidential election.
Instead of addressing and refuting allegations of Trump's stoking nationalism – such as the President's response to the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in which he drew an equivalency between White nationalists and anti-fascists – Grenell deflected, ultimately suggesting he either isn't aware of issues pertaining to nationalism on American soil, or what nationalism is:
"In four years, Donald Trump didn't start any new wars. He brought troops home. He rebuilt the military and signed peace deals that make Americans safer. The Washington elites want you to think this kind of foreign policy is immoral, and so they call it nationalist."
Watch Grenell's RNC speech:
Kevin Schattenkirk is an ethnomusicologist and pop music aficionado.