Richard Grenell, former spokesman for the U.S. mission to the United Nations under President George W. Bush, was sworn in on Thursday (above) by homophobe Mike Pence as ambassador to Germany. Grenell is now the highest-ranking openly gay appointee of the Trump administration.
Grenell took the oath on the Bible which was held by his partner of 15 years, Matt Lashey.
The irony of Pence swearing in Grenell could not have been more apparent.
Pence, as his record shows, is no friend to the LGBTQ community.
In 2000 during his first successful run for Congress, Pence said that he was in favor of sending money allocated to care for people with HIV/AIDS to organizations that provide conversion therapy.
From running a think-tank that published virulently anti-gay articles, to attempting to divert HIV/AIDS money to fund conversion therapy, to refusing to protect LGBT Hoosiers from discrimination, to legalizing anti-LGBT discrimination in Indiana, to cozying up to notorious homophobes, to supporting a ban on gay marriage, and decrying the ‘mainstreaming of homosexuality in the military’ after DADT was repealed, Pence’s record is among the worst records on LGBTQ issues of anyone who has ever occupied the office of the Vice President.
But Grenell has his own issues, as the Washington Blade notes: “First nominated by Trump in September, Grenell waited nearly eight months for confirmation in the Senate. Grenell faced opposition over mean tweets about the appearance of women, including Hillary Clinton, Rachel Maddow and Callista Gingrich, and tweets downplaying the impact of Russia meddling in the 2016 election.”
Last year it was thought that Trump would pick Grenell as ambassador to NATO.
The White House on Grenell’s background:
“Mr. Grenell, a foreign policy writer and commentator, founded the international consulting firm Capitol Media Partners in 2010. For nearly two decades, he has served as the primary communications adviser for public officials at the local, state, Federal, and international levels, as well as for a Fortune 200 ranked company. Mr. Grenell is the longest serving United States spokesman at the United Nations (2001-2008) having served four United States Ambassadors. He earned a B.A. from Evangel University and an MPA from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.”
Grenell served as an advisor to Mitt Romney during his 2012 campaign for president but was forced to resign two weeks into the job after a campaign by social conservatives over his sexual orientation forced him out.
The American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer was among those leading the charge.
Argued Fischer in a CNN appearance: “Well, the point here is that personnel is policy. Everybody in D.C. says that. Personnel is policy. When Governor Romney picks somebody who is an activist homosexual and puts him in a prominent position, he’s sending a shout out, it seems to me, to the homosexual lobby.
