The spirit of Pride is diversity and progress, not respectability politics

The latest installment of “Jurassic Park” is hitting theaters July 4th weekend, and while normally I detest silly summer sequels, for some reason I do enjoy watching dinosaurs eat people on the big screen.

“Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should,” Jeff Goldblum famously said in the 1993 original. After his character perfectly framed the ethical question nestled in the heart of the Jurassic Park story, I was more than happy to see Newman from “Seinfeld” get what he deserved. A brilliant line or movie monologue — like Goldblum’s gem — can not only advance a fictional plot, but also foster conversations about real life. Consider how Michael B. Jordan’s character Killmonger challenged the idea of isolationism and Jack Nicholson’s line “You can’t handle the truth” explored what it takes to defend this country, morally.

One of my all-time favorite movie monologues was delivered by the late Philip Seymour Hoffman in the 1999 cult classic “Flawless.” In the scene, Hoffman — portraying a no-nonsense drag queen — confronts a group of conservative gay men who seek to mute the more flamboyant members of the LGBTQ+ during a Pride march in an attempt to gain broader acceptance.

“You’re ashamed of us, but we’re not ashamed of you,” the speech begins. “As long as you go down on your Banana Republic knees … you’re my sisters and I love you. I do. And f— off!”

I wonder whether Richard Grenell, the former ambassador to Germany who currently serves as an envoy for special missions in the Trump administration, has seen it. I ask because Grenell, who during President Trump’s first term became the country’s first openly gay Cabinet-level official, spent part of this Pride month trying to drive a wedge within the community in a fashion very similar to what was portrayed in the 25-year-old film.

In a Truth Social post back in December, Trump said that in the envoy role, Grenell would “work in some of the hottest spots around the World, including Venezuela and North Korea.” It seems one of Grenell’s special missions was to sell America on the idea that gender identity and transgender healthcare are outside the realm of what “normal gays” are concerned with.

He also suggested the LGBTQ+ community needs to police itself, echoes of the same respectability politics framework that is often employed to gaslight those who have been systematically disenfranchised. Of course Grenell is not the first conservative gay man who has used his station in life to enrich himself at the expense of the collective.

Not long after Hoffman’s character went off in “Flawless” in 1999, Ken Mehlman was appointed President George W. Bush’s director of political affairs and spent years working against legalizing same-sex marriage — as we now know, from the closet. In 2010, Mehlman, a former chairman of the Republican Party, came out as gay. Biographers have documented J. Edgar Hoover’s relationships with men even as he was driving the Lavender Scare. His accomplice, Roy Cohn, has a similar story.

As the various letters suggest, the LGBTQ+ community is far from a monolith. However, if there is one thing most of us have in common, it is our tendency not to vote against our own interest. In 2020, Trump won 27% of the vote. In 2024, it was down to 12%. In between the two elections, we saw a relentless Republican-led attack on LGBTQ+ rights of which Trump has often been the instigator.

I don’t know what Grenell considers “normal gay” behavior, but he does not represent normal gay voting. The idea that he could speak for the community’s core values is not only laughable but also woefully disingenuous. It was the drag queens and gender-nonconforming members of the community who began the Stonewall Riots in 1969. Before Grenell was even born, the first out gay person to run for public office wasn’t a “normal gay” but an extraordinary drag queen by the name of Jose Sarria in 1961. The groups who won progress for queer people have never been monolithically made up of white, Anglo, heteronormative men. That’s what makes the gay rights movement so beautiful, so American, so worthy of pride and celebration.

And that’s also why it’s so weird, given the obvious concern rippling through the LGBTQ+ community because of Trump’s words and actions, that Grenell chooses to use his station to fight for the members of his community who need his help the least, and to do so at the expense of the LGBTQ+ people who really need a champion.

@LZGrandersonShow