INTERNATIONAL
Grenell Claims US Intelligence To Be Pro-LGBTQ Force
National Intelligence acting director says information-sharing to be used as leverage
BY PAUL SCHINDLER
Richard Grenell, the out
gay acting director of
National Intelligence,
told The New York
Times last week that the Trump
administration is considering reducing
intelligence cooperation
with nations that have criminal
penalties for homosexuality.
“We can’t just simply make the
moral argument and expect others
to respond in kind because telling
others that it’s the right thing to do
doesn’t always work,” Grenell told
The Times. “To fi ght for decriminalization
is to fi ght for basic human
rights.”
According to the newspaper,
however, Grenell provided few details,
not making clear whether
his idea was to scale back current
intelligence cooperation or to withhold
future intelligence-sharing
initiatives. Intelligence offi cials
said that his offi ce would, in the
words of The Times “review the issue
and develop ideas.”
Grenell, who over the past two
decades has built a reputation as
an abrasive hardline conservative
willing to battle political opponents
on social media platforms in
slashing — and often misogynistic
— terms, had served as President
Donald Trump’s ambassador to
Germany before being named to
the intelligence post in February.
Given the widespread belief that he
will be replaced later this year by
a permanent director confi rmed by
the Senate, Grenell felt compelled
to tell The Times, “I am not a seat
warmer.”
Until this most recent announcement
from Grenell, the key expectation
of his role in the post was
as a person who would carry out
Trump’s wish to shrink the ranks
of the intelligence community, with
which the president has warred
through much of his tenure.
Early last year, while still serving
as the ambassador to Germany,
Grenell announced he would
be shepherding an administration
effort to battle the policies of the
roughly six-dozen nations that impose
Richard Grenell, the acting director of National Intelligence, speaking at the attend the Munich Security
Conference in February.
criminal sanctions on samegender
sexual conduct. At that
time, however, when a reporter
asked Trump about the effort, the
president responded, “I don’t know,
uh, which report you’re talking
about. We have many reports.”
Later in 2019, Secretary of State
Mike Pompeo announced a panel
to reevaluate the role of human
rights in US foreign policy, fueling
widespread concern that it would
be a cover for the administration to
back away from the nation’s global
advocacy for LGBTQ and women’s
rights — in line with the signifi -
cant retreat on those same issues
in domestic policy.
“What does it mean to say or
claim that something is, in fact, a
human right?,” Pompeo said at the
time.
Still, Grenell insisted his mission
is serious.
“We have the president’s total
support,” he told The Times. “This
is an American value, and this is
United States policy.”
Ryan Thoreson, who works in
the LGBT Rights Program at Human
Rights Watch, voiced skepticism
about how much credence to
pay to Grenell’s pronouncement.
“We’ve seen some real victories
for decriminalization over the past
few years, but these have been the
results of local advocacy rather
than pressure from the Trump
REUTERS/ MICHAEL DALDER
Administration,” Thoreson wrote
in an email response to Gay City
News’ query. “The lawsuit that led
to the invalidation of Botswana’s
sodomy law last summer, for example,
was initiated long before
the administration’s initiative
began. Ambassador Grenell has
drawn public attention to the issue
— including at the UN, where
he and Ambassador Kelly Craft
read the names of the countries
that criminalize same-sex activity
— and President Trump has also
referenced it publicly. Beyond that
rhetorical support, however, we’re
not aware of any kind of dedicated
funding or staffi ng for the initiative
or specifi c interventions with
countries that might be considering
decriminalization.”
Thoreson added that there is
good reason for both the queer
community in the US and foreign
governments to doubt the sincerity
of the Trump administration on
LGBTQ rights.
“Decriminalization is an important
goal, and the most effective
way to secure it is to stand up for
the full range of human rights that
LGBT people and others enjoy,” he
wrote. “The Trump Administration
will be a more effective ambassador
for LGBT rights when it models
support for LGBT rights at home,
including the passage of nondiscrimination
laws, the rejection of
broad religious exemptions, and
the restoration of protections for
transgender people that it has methodically
stripped away over the
past three years.”
Grenell’s comments to The
Times, coming in the midst of the
nation’s preoccupation with the
coronavirus crisis, likely received
less critical scrutiny than they
might have otherwise. Asked its
view of the Trump administration’s
posture on decriminalization
of homosexuality worldwide,
OutRight Action International,
through its spokesperson Daina
Ruduša, responded, “We are completely
focused on our COVID-19
response work at the moment —
we launched an emergency fund,
webinar series, a way to share stories
of LGBTIQ people, and are just
fi nalizing some rapid research into
the effects of COVID-19 on LGBTIQ
people too. So unfortunately we
have not really followed the latest
news on this, and, as such, cannot
meaningfully comment.”
Human Rights First did not respond
to Gay City News’ request for
comment.
And The Times itself, in its story,
had comment only from Stuart
Milk, the president of the Harvey
Milk Foundation, which works on
international LGBTQ rights, but
with an all-volunteer staff.
Those seeking the roots of skepticism
about Grenell’s seriousness
in talking about global LGBTQ
rights might also look to US policy
toward Saudi Arabia. According
to Amnesty International, as recently
as this past fall, the Saudi
state security agency defi ned homosexuality
along with feminism
and atheism as “extremist ideas”
punishable by fl ogging and jailing.
Yet, even in the face of the
United Nations’ fi nding of “credible
evidence” that Saudi Crown
Prince Mohammed bin Salman
bears responsibility for the 2018
murder of dissident journalist Jamal
Khashoggi, a permanent US
resident, in that nation’s consulate
in Istanbul, Trump has refused to
➤ RICHARD GRENELL, continued on p.13
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