Gay Trump loyalist and Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell declared in a Pride Month interview that gay people have “largely achieved equality in this country” and that “normal gay” people support Donald Trump.
“I think that we have largely achieved equality in this country for gays and lesbians,” Grenell told Politico’s Dasha Burns. “I think that the gay left knows that, and so therefore, they’re coming up with new gimmicks and fringe stuff to keep the money flowing and to keep the power going within the Democratic Party. If you are within the Democratic Party as a gay person, what you’ve brought to the table is organizing efforts, money, and votes in the past that’s all fallen apart. You see normal gays voting for Donald Trump, for Republicans, that’s been happening for years.”
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Grenell said that Pride parades are “embarrassing” because the people there are “real fringe.”
“It’s too sexual,” he said. “I think that we have to start critiquing ourselves. And, by the way, this is extremely popular with normal gays. The more I talk to normal gays about this…”
When asked to explain what a “normal gay” is, Grenell said he was referring to “not a radical gay that says that six-year-olds should have their boobs cut off or get hormone replacement therapy.” Those are not positions that anyone holds. Conservatives will often falsely accuse LGBTQ+ people of supporting medical transition treatments for very young children in order to stir up anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment.
“Look, I think the reality is, is that we have to have normality,” he continued. “That’s what we were fighting for in 1993. We kept saying we’re normal, we’re just like you. We just love somebody of the same sex.”
“You go to a Pride parade and it’s embarrassing! It’s real fringe and it’s too sexual. And I think that we have to start critiquing ourselves.”
@RichardGrenell pic.twitter.com/8Vl3hn2ymk
— David Leatherwood
(@brokebackUSA) June 14, 2025
Despite Grenell’s statements – where he was only referring to the rights of cisgender queer people – LGBTQ+ people still lack many legal protections. Congress has not yet passed legislation banning anti-LGBTQ+ or even anti-gay discrimination, and the current administration is rolling back administrative rules that provided some protections for LGBTQ+ people.
The current administration has attacked the rights of transgender people on multiple fronts, banning them from getting gender-affirming care or reducing access to it, banning them from serving in the military, and requiring schools to discriminate against trans students, going so far as to investigate states that try to treat trans kids equally.
States are banning discussions of LGBTQ+ people in schools, LGBTQ+ authors from libraries, and drag performances from public spaces. The Trump administration has cut back funding for HIV/AIDS research and prevention. Meanwhile, Republican officials call LGBTQ+ people pedophiles, and conservatives on social media increasingly use anti-gay slurs and spread homophobia.
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