Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell claimed that the gay and lesbian community has “largely achieved equality in this country” amid this most recent Pride Month of June.
Grenell gave his first media interview since President Donald Trump was booed and cheered during the Kennedy Center’s opening night of the Tony-winning musical Les Misérables last week. According to Grenell, he noted on Saturday’s episode of Politico’s The Conversation with Dasha Burns, the gay and lesbian community has only “fringe stuff” to file complaints about against the Republican Party.
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“Now I think, and this is an extremely controversial statement, but I believe it wholeheartedly,” Grenell said. “I think that we have largely achieved equality in this country for gays and lesbians. I think that the gay left knows that, and so therefore, they’re coming up with new gimmicks and fringe stuff to keep the money flowing and to keep the power going within the Democratic Party. If you are within the Democratic Party as a gay person, what you’ve brought to the table is organizing efforts, money, and votes in the past that’s all fallen apart. You see normal gays voting for Donald Trump, for Republicans, that’s been happening for years.”
“You go to a Pride parade and it’s embarrassing! It’s real fringe and it’s too sexual. And I think that we have to start critiquing ourselves.”
— David Leatherwood ???????? (@brokebackUSA) June 14, 2025
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Earlier in the interview, Burns asked Grenell to elaborate on what a “normal gay” was. Grenell explained this is “not a radical gay that says that six-year-olds should have their boobs cut off or get hormone replacement therapy.”
“I mean, you go to a Pride parade and it’s embarrassing to be honest,” Grenell said. “It’s real fringe, and it’s too sexual. I think that we have to start critiquing ourselves. By the way, this is extremely popular with normal gays.”
Grenell was regarded as the most prominent openly gay member of the first Trump administration when he served as the U.S. ambassador to Germany. He later went on to become a senior adviser to the Republican National Committee with a focus on LGBT outreach.
“Look, I think the reality is, is that we have to have normality. That’s what we were fighting for in 1993. We kept saying we’re normal, we’re just like you. We just love somebody of the same sex,” Grenell went on.
This comes after the Hawaii State Capitol raised its first rainbow flag in Honolulu in early June to commemorate Pride Month. Hawaii followed Wisconsin, which also flew an LGBT flag over its Capitol, as it has done for the past six years.
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Meanwhile, other states like Montana, Arizona, Utah, and Idaho have passed recent legislation to keep rainbow flags and other flags outside of state and federal flags on their government buildings.
In Utah, the Salt Lake City Council unanimously passed an ordinance establishing versions of LGBT flags as “official” city flags to circumvent the state‘s new law restricting them in government-sanctioned spaces. Boise, Idaho, Mayor Lauren McLean, a Democrat, similarly issued a proclamation designating the Pride flag as an official flag of the city.