Richard Grenell is wearing a lot of hats these days. The former ambassador and longtime Republican political operative currently serves as Special Presidential Envoy for Special Missions (yes, that’s a real title), and — because this is 2025 and anything goes — he’s also running the Kennedy Center.
In a recent sit-down interview with Politico’s Dasha Burns, Grenell opened up about his dual life in diplomacy and the arts, what it means to be a “normal gay,” and how he sees the LGBTQ+ community’s place in the current U.S. political climate. As expected, there was a lot to unpack.
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Right off the bat, Richard Grenell wants you to know he’s not here for what he calls the “culture wars” coming from the left. “Everyone should be welcome. No one should be booed. No one should be banned,” he told Politico’s Dasha Burns — a quote that sounds nice in theory, until you realize that what he’s really doing is pointing fingers at the LGBTQ community, while insisting that he knows best.
“It’s embarrassing, to be honest,” he says — referring to Pride parades, specifically the parts he deems “too sexual” or “fringe.” His argument? That such displays are harmful to the image of the queer community and inappropriate for children. But here’s the twist: Grenell isn’t just critiquing Pride. He’s laying the blame at the feet of what he calls the “gay left,” and painting anyone who doesn’t conform to his idea of respectable queerness as part of the problem.
And then comes the real kicker: his repeated use of the term “normal gays.”
Photo Credit: @richardgrenellYes, “normal gays.” According to Grenell, that means gay people who aren’t radical, who don’t support gender-affirming care for youth, and who, apparently, vote Republican. “Normal gays are voting for Trump,” he says, as if that’s the new gold standard for queerness. He argues that the fight for equality has already been won — which, depending on who you ask, is a pretty convenient thing to say when you’re sitting in a position of privilege and proximity to power.
There’s something eerily familiar about this brand of respectability politics — the kind that insists queer people should behave, assimilate, be palatable, and stop “making it weird.” It ignores the fact that Pride itself was started by trans women of color and drag queens who were most definitely not the “normal” Grenell keeps referencing. It’s easy to call for unity and acceptance when you’re the one deciding who gets to be included.
Grenell, who now also heads the Kennedy Center, says he’s not against art that pushes boundaries — as long as the funding’s there. But when it comes to people pushing back on his rhetoric? He’s not exactly open to the nuance. Instead, he positions himself as the voice of reason, while painting the rest of the LGBTQ community as either deluded, radical, or part of a political money machine.
Let’s be real: there are always conversations worth having about how Pride is presented, about how we protect kids, and about how the LGBTQ+ community continues to evolve. But Grenell’s framing isn’t about honest dialogue — it’s about drawing a line between “good gays” and “bad gays.” It’s about shaming people back into the closet if they don’t fit a narrow, conservative mold.
The truth is, queerness has never been one-size-fits-all. It has always been messy, complex, loud, quiet, joyful, angry, radical, and yes — sometimes very, VERY gay. And instead of telling the community to police itself into silence, maybe it’s time to ask why some people are so desperate to control the narrative in the first place.
Because if Grenell’s version of “normal” is what’s being sold, we deserve the freedom to say: no thanks.
A misconception today is that the gay community is still a huge part of “Pride”. It isn’t. Pride was lost to the gay community when someone opened the gates and let all the other alphabetic letters in. They run the show.
No, Donald, people like YOU are why the movement is being set back 50 years. If you want to be heteronormative, that’s fine. Me NOT being that way is also fine, or should be in a civilized society. You may be presenting very masc, but you, as a Gay man (or a Straight men) have no place telling anyone how to dress, how to wear their hair, or how to walk. (Unless you’re Tim Gunn, that is.)
I remember the Jayne County song very well. Normal or Mister Normal. People who want me and others to be normal are missing the plot. Leave me alone!
LOL at him saying “Everyone should be welcome. No one should be booed. No one should be banned”. Unless if you are trans, fem, or anything that does not define his term of “normal gays”
Exactly! And well said!
They’re called “Log Cabin Republicans” because “We’re a bunch of self-loathing hypocrites wouldn’t fit on the letterhead.
People like you are the reason the movement has been set back 50 years all the progress made is gone and that is why politicians are coming after us
Let them come…and is our rights really “gone?”