Richard Grenell, the openly gay U.S. Ambassador to Germany, is taking aim at presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, accusing him of trying to capitalize on Vice President Mike Pence’s anti-gay religious beliefs to further his candidacy.
According to Grenell, Buttigieg is capitalizing on stereotypes about Pence’s religiosity and wrongly accusing him of being “anti-gay” in order to raise money from political left-wingers who oppose Pence.
“Mayor Peter has been pushing this hate hoax, along the lines of Jussie Smollett, for a very long time now, several weeks,” Grenell said. “And I find it really ironic that Mayor Pete stayed silent about the so-called hate hoax on him and others during 2015, 2016, 2017 when Mike Pence was governor.
“There was total silence. It’s ironic that right about now when he’s starting his fundraising apparatus to run for president that he comes up with this idea and this attack.”
Grenell defended Pence and his wife, Karen, saying they are not hateful people.
“One of the things that really bothers me about this attack is that Mike Pence is a friend of mine,” he said. “Mike and Karen are great people, they’re godly people, they’re followers of Christ. They don’t have hate in their heart for anyone. They know my partner. They have accepted us.”
He also took the opportunity to criticize the LGBTQ community for failing to be tolerant of people whose religious beliefs may no longer be considered politically correct.
“The gay community used to be the community pushing tolerance and diversity. We were the ones that were saying everyone should be able to love and accept each other. Now suddenly there’s a whole community of people demanding that we all think alike,” Grenell said. “I think it’s outrageous. When Mayor Pete came out, the vice president complimented him and said he holds him in high regard. The vice president or then-governor has said nothing but positive things about Mayor Pete. I think this is a total hate hoax and I think it’s outrageous.”
He also lashed out at GLAAD for criticizing him, after the advocacy organization similarly noted that a “sitting ambassador shouldn’t be going on TV to attack a Presidential candidate.
“Odd that GLAAD wants to silence gays they don’t agree with,” Grenell replied. “Are we all supposed to think the same? #realdiversity.”
Grenell also attempted to prove that Pence is not as anti-gay as everyone thinks, retweeting a 2015 tweet from Pence reading: “If I saw a restaurant owner refusing to serve a gay couple, I wouldn’t eat there anymore.”
“The hate hoax being perpetrated on my friend @VP Mike Pence is sadly tied to a political fundraising strategy. Mayor Pete was silent for years — I’m outraged by his phony outrage,” Grenell wrote as part of the retweet.
Here’s a tweet from 2015 that is barely mentioned. The hate hoax being perpetrated on my friend @VP Mike Pence is sadly tied to a political fundraising strategy. Mayor Pete was silent for years – I’m outraged by his phony outrage. pic.twitter.com/KA0DrknNR2
Russian police raided a party believed to be promoting "propaganda" in favor of the international LGBTQ movement, which has been declared an "extremist organization" by the Russian Supreme Court.
As reported by The Telegraph, security officers entered the party, held at Typography, a club in Tula, 100 miles south of Moscow. They then dragged "feminine-looking" men out into the snow before beating them, based on information from the Russian human rights organization OVD-Info.
The gathering was not advertised as a "gay" or "LGBTQ" party, but the description by promoters of a night of "love, openness, and sexuality" attracted the attention of authorities.
An Ohio State University student has been charged with a hate crime after urinating on a gay Pride flag hanging on the porch of a duplex in the Weinland Park neighborhood of Columbus.
Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein announced that his office charged 20-year-old Trey Samuel Fetzer in Franklin County Municipal Court with "ethnic intimidation" -- more commonly known as a hate-crime charge -- as well as misdemeanor charges of criminal mischief, criminal trespass, and disorderly conduct.
"Vandalizing property and making homophobic remarks in an attempt to intimidate members of the LGBTQ+ community will not be tolerated in our city," Klein said in a statement. "Columbus is diverse and tolerant, and we celebrate our LGBTQ+ community. Hate has no home here, and as long as I'm city attorney, we will continue to aggressively prosecute hate and bias crimes."
North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson emerged victorious in the Republican gubernatorial primary, putting the vehement opponent of LGBTQ rights one step closer to the governor's mansion.
If Robinson is victorious in November, his election will likely open the floodgates to a host of additional anti-LGBTQ legislation and executive actions that could make Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis look reasonable by comparison.
One of the loudest detractors of the LGBTQ community, Robinson pushed for and encouraged the Republican-dominated General Assembly to pass three anti-LGBTQ bills last year.
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