Richard Grenell: LGBTQ Tokenism in Action
Pandering, politics, and pinkwashing
Before Richard Grenell stepped down in June as acting Director of National Intelligence, he was briefly the highest-ranking gay appointee in the Trump administration. He made history as the first openly gay American to lead a Cabinet-level department.
Yet LGBTQ people and advocates almost never celebrate Grenell’s accomplishments and only rarely speak favorably of him in any sense. Grenell has been trying to make waves about that on Twitter as he campaigns for Donald Trump, attacks Joe Biden, and proclaims “Gay is not an ideology.”
Grennel’s complaint begs a conversation about tokenism and pinkwashing
We need to talk about why Grenell is an LGBTQ “token.” We need to talk about why he’s an excellent reason to vote for Joe Biden.
In the above Twitter thread, Grenell implies that the Victory Fund, a PAC that supports pro-equality, pro-choice LGBTQ candidates, ought to endorse all LGBTQ candidates…
