Ric Grenell, GOP’s Fruitless Bid to Attract Queer Voters
Homophobes, aided by Vichy lackeys, kick off long-shot initiative to re-write history
BY MATT TRACY
You’re demoted!
That apparently was
the message President
Donald Trump sent to
Ric Grenell, the out gay former US
ambassador to Germany and acting
director of national intelligence
who was once a member of President
Donald Trump’s cabinet —
many of whom have only “acting”
status themselves —and a prominent
fi gure in the federal government
and in the right wing chattering
class.
Nowadays Trump’s go-to gay
man has been relegated to the role
of senior advisor within the Republican
National Committee, where
he is being tasked with handling
LGBTQ outreach efforts — the
type of role typically assigned to a
more junior player in party politics
— according to Fox News.
Good luck with that.
Rublicans aim to somehow attract
queer voters ahead of the
November general election with
a strategy that appears to largely
exclude transgender Americans in
favor of a more narrowly defi ned
group of “gay and lesbian” individuals.
Even with that more targeted
approach, the theory of the case is
not strong — to say the least.
The outreach campaign awkwardly
coincides with the party’s
ongoing opposition to LGBTQ
right, from coast to coast, as evidenced
by administration efforts
in opposing recognition of sexual
orientation and gender identity
protections under Title VII of the
1964 Civil Rights Act — and related
federal laws — banning trans
girls and women from participating
in sports, stripping healthcare
protections from transgender
Americans, rolling back protections
for trans students, banning
trans people from the military, and
more. Many of those efforts have
been curtailed by federal courts.
The Log Cabin Repbulicans, the
group of queer Republicans that
has been embroiled in infi ghting
during the Trump era, posted a
video ad on social media featuring
He used to run National Intelligence, when he wasn’t trolling Angela Merkel, but now Ric Grenell has
some sort of queer outreach job at the Republican National Committee. Ouch!
Grenell, who praised Trump
as “the most pro-gay president in
American history” and attacked
Democratic presidential nominee
Joe Biden for his years-ago opposition
on issues like marriage equality,
something he moved the ball
on considerably in 2012 when he
nudged his boss, President Barack
Obama, to embrace the cause as
well.
Shortly after midnight on August
20, Trump retweeted the ad
posted by Log Cabin Republicans
and wrote, “My great honor!!!” That
tweet generated more than 23,400
retweets and 84,100 likes in less
than 18 hours. The Log Cabin
Republicans’ ad itself has drawn
more than 4.4 million views as of
the afternoon of August 20.
In a similar move, Long Cabin
Republicans chair Robert Kabel
on August 20 penned an op-ed
in USA Today voicing a series of
fl imsy talking points about why he
believes queer folks should back
an incumbent president who has
repeatedly found new ways to assail
the most marginalized LGBTQ
communities. Kabel’s op-ed, in line
with the Trump campaign’s apparent
strategy, appeared to deliberately
avoid addressing the burdens
facing transgender individuals until
the end of the piece and, in the
process, made a series of misleading
or outright false claims about
REUTERS/ DENIS BALIBOUSE
Trump’s record on LGBTQ issues.
Among his points, Kabel
praised Trump’s “previous support
of amending the 1964 Civil
Rights Act” — something he casually
mentioned a couple of decades
back — without mentioning the administration’s
legal effort opposing
the interpetation of the 1964 Act’s
Title VII to protect LGBTQ people
from employment discrimination.
Trump’s administration fought
against the plaintiffs in the Bostock
case that led to the Supreme
Court’s June ruling ensuring nondiscrimination
protections based
on sexual orientation and gender
identity in the workplace.
Kabel also touted what he said
was the president’s “early support
of gay couples having the same
rights and protections as straight
couples,” without mentioning
Trump’s efforts to strip citizenship
from bi-national children of American
same-sex parents and to allow
foster care and adoption agencies
to reject LGBTQ parents simply
because of who they are.
Perhaps the most laughable
point made by Kabel was when he
wrote that Trump “is likely even
the fi rst private club owner in Palm
Beach, Florida, to admit an openly
gay couple.” As if access to exclusive
havens for the super-rich is a
burning civil rights issue at this
moment.
POLITICS
Further proof of the Trump-led
Republican Party’s overwhelming
opposition to basic queer rights
was evident in the vote breakdown
in the House of Representatives
when lawmakers brought
the Equality Act to a fl oor vote last
year in the fi rst step toward affording
the community comprehensive
non-discrimination protections.
Only eight of the 236 House votes
in favor of the Equality Act were
Republicans and every lawmaker
who voted against the proposed
law was a Republican. Meanwhile,
the bill is dead in the water for now
since GOP Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell will not allow a
vote in that chamber.
Other talking points played up
by Grenell and his GOP friends
include an initiative by the Trump
administration to decriminalize
homosexuality around the world.
That initiative has been the subject
of ridicule. Trump, when asked
about it earlier in his presidency,
said he didn’t even know about it,
and the initiative has not amounted
to anything. Just one nation,
Botswana, has decriminalized homosexuality
since the campaign
started last year.
In fact, the US in reality has
scaled back its international efforts
to take on homophobia and
transphobia. Secretary of State
Mike Pompeo created a panel of
homophobes and transphobes
who devised a report criticizing the
nation’s human rights advocacy
posture, even arguing that the
“expansion of human rights has
weakened rather than strengthened
the claims of human rights.”
All of this is on top of Mike Pence.
Enough said on that topic.
Regardless of the pitch Republicans
make to queer voters, the
party has a tall task ahead of
them. Exit polls showed that former
Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton landed 78 percent of the
LGBTQ vote during the 2016 presidential
election, while Trump mustered
a measly 14 percent of the
queer vote, according to exit polls
provided to major mainstream media
outlets.
GayCityNews.com | August 27 - September 9, 2020 5
/GayCityNews.com
