Gay Republican operative Ric Grenell, lately on this blog for having come up with the Corrupt Trump Administration's tepid advocacy for international decriminalization of homosexuality, has quit his job as Jack McFarland of All Trades at the State Department to take on the unenviable role of LGBTQ+ Outreach for the Trump reelection campaign.
Ironically, with a straight face.
"As America's first openly-gay cabinet member, I can confidently say that President Trump has done more for gay and lesbian Americans than any other president, and it is not even close," Grenell said in a statement to Fox News.
Grenell went on to slam Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, saying that during his "four decades in Washington, he consistently fought against marriage equality and even threatened to cut funding for schools who taught acceptance of homosexuality."
"From President Trump's global campaign to decriminalize homosexuality to becoming the first president to support gay marriage on his first day in office, he has been a champion for our community and I am thrilled to be part of the fight to re-elect him for four more years," Grenell said.
One has to wonder who is going to continue Mr. Grinell's campaign to decriminalize homosexuality around the world now that he's no longer Ambassador to Germany, Special Envoy to Kosovo and Serbia, and Acting Director of National Intelligence. Mike Pompeo? Ha!
There hasn't been much to show for Grinell's efforts: Chechnya continues its pogrom against LGBTQ+ Chechens; and Russia, Poland, most of the Islamic world, and most of Africa haven't lessened the persecution of their LGBTQ+ citizens, either.
Perhaps his campaign could maybe just possibly have been a factor in swaying the High Court of Botswana to his point of view last year; but I imagine the justices were more influenced by the example of the country's neighbor South Africa, which decriminalized homosexuality back in 1998.
But don't plan your wedding in Gaborone just yet. Thanks to COVID-19, Americans are barred from entering Botswana (as are non-citizens arriving from Austria, Belgium, China, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Iran, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom).
Ah, well. At least Mr. Grinell made no pretense that the Corrupt Trump Administration has been anything other than overtly hostile to the T, Q, and + elements of our community. But if it's fair game to "slam" Joe Biden for having opposed marriage equality while in the Senate, it's also fair to note that Biden came to support marriage equality while Trump was still opposing it on the grounds that ... uh, something to do with long putters in golf.
One also has to wonder how Mr. Grinell explains the Corrupt Trump Administration's actions to remove sexual orientation and gender identity protections under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act; to ban trans girls and women from participating in sports; to deny healthcare protections to transgender Americans; to roll back protections for trans students; to ban transgender people from the military; to strip children of bi-national same-sex couples of American citizenship; etc., etc., etc.
No comments:
Post a Comment