ABOVE: Richard Grenell said not meeting with Germany’s far-right leader was a “difficult thing.” (Photo public domain)
Richard Grenell, who has become the face of LGBTQ outreach in President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign, said of his time in the administration not meeting with Germany’s openly-lesbian, far-right leader Alice Weidel as he met with other party leaders was a “difficult thing,” according to a report Oct. 5 in the Carnegie Mellon University student newspaper The Tartan.
Grenell was quoted making those remarks in the context of a debate that took place Oct. 2 at the Institute for Politics & Strategy with Stuart Milk, nephew of gay rights pioneer Harvey Milk who has continued his uncle’s legacy to advance LGBTQ rights. The two worked with each other on the Trump administration’s global initiative to decriminalize homosexuality, which was the focus of the debate.
When discussion shifted to answering a question about the rise of right-wing movements in Europe and the threat they pose to LGBTQ rights, Grenell hedged, arguing it’s “not a black and white issue” and both Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel and the far-left German party are “not good on gay rights,” according to the The Tartan. (Merkel as chancellor of Germany allowed a vote to legalize same-sex marriage, but cast a vote against it.)
That’s when Grenell reportedly said a “difficult thing” for him was meeting with the far-left German party, which he dubiously claimed was bad on LGBTQ rights, but not meeting with Alternative for Deutschland (AfD), the far-right German party, citing “an embassy policy that I would not meet [with AfD].” Weidel, the party leader, rails against immigration to Germany and opposes LGBTQ rights even though she’s an out lesbian.
Milk reportedly was quick to disagree with Grenell about the lack of danger of the rising far-right in Europe, saying “it is something that should be on everyone’s table,” according to The Tartan. Milk reportedly cited anti-LGBTQ rollback in Hungary under Viktor Orban and gave the personal story of an LGBTQ activist he had worked with for years being killed in Hungary.
Grenell, in response to an email inquiry from the Washington Blade on whether he wanted to flesh out his comments that not meeting with Weidel was a “difficult thing,” was characteristically defiant and vague in disputing the quoted remarks in The Tartan report.
“You didn’t hear the conversation or even a single sentence of it and your gossip-style game of telephone is not what I said at all and is typical of how you always distort what Republicans say and do,” Grenell wrote.
Grenell has previously made favorable remarks about conservatives in Europe. As U.S. ambassador to Germany, Grenell gave an interview to Breitbart News in which he said he “absolutely [wants] to empower other conservatives throughout Europe” and praised Austria’s Sebastian Kurz. (During the debate, Grenell was quoted as denying the report, calling a question on it “silly” and saying he wanted to “empower people like me, which meant gays, and gay conservatives.”)
The main focus of the debate, however, was the global initiative to decriminalize homosexuality. Although critics have said it amounted to nothing, Grenell has defended progress on the initiative.
According to The Tartan, discussion quickly shifted away from the initiative to a debate between Grenell and Milk on their approach to LGBTQ rights and the best presidential candidate in the 2020 election on that issue.
Milk expressed strong support for Joe Biden, although he emphasized his political views were separate from the Milk Foundation, which has 501(c) status, and Grenell explained his support for Trump despite the anti-LGBTQ record the incumbent has developed during his administration, according to The Tartan.
When Grenell dubiously claimed Trump is the “first president in history to come into office supporting gay marriage,” apparently based on comments Trump made after the 2016 election when he said he was “fine” with the Supreme Court ruling for same-sex marriage, Milk reportedly countered with details about Trump’s anti-LGBTQ record
Milk reportedly cited the transgender military ban and a 2016 Republican Party Platform that endorsed legislation allowing religious exemptions to discriminate against LGBTQ people. Milk also pointed out Vice President Mike Pence spoke at a conference for the anti-LGBTQ Family Research Council.
A key moment came when Grenell, questioned on whether the global initiative to decriminalize homosexuality included support for transgender rights, said he “[fights] for gay and lesbian rights” and is “not a trans activist”, though he is “a full supporter of trans rights”, and added that decriminalization is “the first step” when it comes to LGBTQ rights, according to The Tartan.
But Milk reportedly didn’t accept that transgender exclusion from the LGBTQ movement, insisting transgender rights aren’t separate and “any type of criminalization against any element of the LGBT community is a criminalization of us all.” According to a recent U.N. report, at least 13 member states criminalize being transgender.
Milk didn’t respond Oct. 6 to the Washington Blade’s request to comment on whether they would dispute any aspect of the report in The Tartan.
Bill Brink, a spokesperson for the Institute for Politics & Strategy, said in response to an inquiry from the Washington Blade the event was recorded, but the school won’t make the recording public because the event was off the record. Asked to dispute any part of the report in The Tartan, Brink referred to his previous comment.
The Tartan report acknowledges a spokesperson for the Institute for Politics & Strategy declared the event off the record to allow the speakers to be “candid” and give the “best information possible,” but the report says the debate was “open to anyone affiliated with Carnegie Mellon with no written agreement to keep the details of the talk off the record.”
