For Post as U.S. Ambassador to Germany
The White House announced that earlier this month President Trump had nominated openly gay Richard Grenell (b. 1966) for the post of U.S. ambassador to Germany, a position that requires Senate confirmation. The press release did not mention that Grenell is gay or that he was a Trump delegate to the Republican National Convention last summer, but Grenell has experience in diplomacy. During the George W. Bush administration, he was the longest serving U.S. spokesperson at the United Nations, advising four U.S. ambassadors (2001-2008).
Grenell briefly served during the 2012 presidential election as a foreign policy spokesperson for Republican nominee Mitt Romney, but resigned after less than two weeks amid pressure from social conservatives over his sexual orientation. An official of the American Family Association issued a statement at the time characterizing Grenell as a “gay activist” who would be trying to promote a “homosexual agenda.” Even so, Grenell was the first openly gay spokesman for a Republican presidential candidate.
Make of this what you will, but Grenell, who is under contract with Fox News, describes himself as a gay conservative Christian. After graduating from Evangel University, a Christian school affiliated with the Assemblies of God denomination, Grenell earned an advanced degree from Harvard’s J. F. Kennedy School of Government. A member of the Log Cabin Republicans national organization, in 1995 he worked with Paul Ryan when both were congressional staffers on the same floor. Grenell has a same-sex partner of 15 years, Matt Lashey, who graduated from Jerry Falwell's Liberty University. When serving under President Bush, Grenell tried to get his partner’s name listed in the U.N. “bluebook” directory, but the request was denied by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
While Grenell has endorsed same-sex marriage and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2013, he has expressed skepticism over the Student Non-Discrimination Act and former President Obama's 2014 executive order against anti-LGBT workplace discrimination among federal contractors. Like Trump, Grenell is hostile to the press and often accuses reporters of biases that compromise their reporting. He also shares our president’s mean-spirited Twitter habit.
The post of U.S. Ambassador to Germany has been vacant since January 20, 2017 (inauguration day), when Trump ordered all non-career diplomats to vacate our embassies world wide, without replacements. The length of time our ambassador posts have sat vacant is unprecedented.
Your blogger doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Sources: Wikipedia, the Dallas Voice, and the Washington Blade.
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