Peter Thiel was “proud to be gay” at most anti-LGBT GOP convention ever
Tech billionaire doesnt agree with "every plank" in party platform
“I am proud to be gay. I am proud to be a Republican, but most of all I am proud to be an American.”
–Tech billionaire Peter Thiel, speaking at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland last night. Thiel, a longtime Republican supporter, warned his party against getting distracted by social issues, including arguments over transgender bathroom usage.
“I don’t pretend to agree with every plank in our party’s platform. But fake culture wars only distract us from our economic decline,” he said, continuing: “When I was a kid, the great debate was about how to defeat the Soviet Union. And we won. Now we are told that the great debate is about who gets to use which bathroom. This is a distraction from our real problems. Who cares?”
As a gay man, Thiel could have found quite a lot in the party’s 2016 platform to disagree with. Considered the most anti-LGBT platform in the party’s history — even by the Log Cabin Republicans — it makes clear Republican opposition to same-sex marriage, open service by LGBT people in the military, transgender bathroom usage, and gay adoptions. It also supports “conversion therapy” on minors.
Last week, Log Cabin Republican president Gregory T. Angelo told supporters he was “mad as hell” at the party’s anti-LGBT stance.
“There’s no way to sugar-coat this: I’m mad as hell — and I know you are, too,” Angelo said in an email, adding: “Opposition to marriage equality, nonsense about bathrooms, an endorsement of the debunked psychological practice of ‘pray the gay away’ — it’s all in there.”
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