Trump sycophant Richard Grenell bombarded with Republican transphobia after sharing trans woman’s CPAC experience
Richard Grenell, former acting director of US National Intelligence, speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) held in the Hyatt Regency on 27 February 2021 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Former Trump official Richard Grenell has experienced Republican transphobia after sharing a trans woman’s experience at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
Grenell, who was the acting director of national intelligence under Trump and ambassador to Germany, shared “some truth” from CPAC that “DC reporters won’t acknowledge” while tagging The Washington Post‘s politics reporter Dave Weigel. He shared a screenshot of a Facebook post by Gina Roberts, a trans woman that attended CPAC.
https://twitter.com/RichardGrenell/status/1366405402141802501
In the Facebook post, Roberts said: “CPAC 2021 was an incredibly accepting and wonderful experience for this transgender Republican woman.
“I worked at the Log Cabin Republican booth and received nothing but respectful questions about things in the news about transgender people.”
Roberts claimed it was “much better and easy to get along” with the CPAC crowd than “any Pride festival I was involved at”.
Richard Grenell was quickly inundated with anti-trans outrage
Robert’s post garnered outrage from the Republican‘s hugely right-wing following. Lauren Witzke, spokesperson for the Hold the Line PAC, which was founded after rioters attempted an insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January, questioned if “we’re celebrating mental illness now”.
She wrote on Twitter: “Transgenderism is demonic, no matter how much $$ your donors give you to convince you it isn’t.”
Witzke then asked if CPAC is “going to start advocating for chemical castrations for minors next year”, warning “that’s what’s coming”.
Transgenderism is demonic, no matter how much $$ your donors give you to convince you it isn’t.
Is CPAC going to start advocating for chemical castrations for minors next year? Because that’s what’s coming. https://t.co/SmR4Kc3IRX
— Lauren Witzke (@LaurenWitzkeDE) March 1, 2021
Joshua Foxworth, a failed Republican candidate for Congress in Texas, quoted Grenell’s tweet, saying he didn’t “want this in my party”. He said: “This is insanity and against everything I stand for and against Christ.”
Foxworth added that, if you support “this”, “you are not a conservative”.
https://twitter.com/FoxworthFor14/status/1366419289109131264
Another person, who claimed to know Roberts personally, said “there is no doubt that [Gina] is a true conservative and a strong woman”.
“Anyone who thinks that someone should be excluded from our party because of orientation or gender shouldn’t call themselves a champion of personal liberty,” she added.
I know Gina and there no doubt that she is a true conservative, and a strong woman. Anyone who thinks that someone should be excluded from our party because of orientation or gender shouldn’t call themselves a champion of personal liberty. What’s next kicking out women?— Clare Michal (@ClareCathrine) March 2, 2021
The ‘personal opinion of a singular trans person’ doesn’t change the fact that CPAC espoused anti-trans rhetoric
Kait Moroney wrote on Twitter that one person’s positive experience at CPAC does not detract from the fact that the conference had some decidedly anti-LGBT+ moments. They wrote: “Fun fact, the personal opinion of a singular trans person at CPAC doesn’t change the fact that vile transphobic rhetoric was spewed from the CPAC main stage by powerful people for days.”
fun fact, the personal opinion of a singular trans person at CPAC doesn't change the fact that vile transphobic rhetoric was spewed from the CPAC mainstage by powerful people for days.— kait "protect trans youth" monster (@thekaitmonster) March 1, 2021
In his first appearance since leaving the White House in January, Donald Trump decided to take the time to mock trans athletes. While speaking before a crowd at CPAC, Trump repeatedly lodged attacks at Joe Biden, continuing the false idea that the 2020 election was stolen, and characterised immigrants as “predators”, “rapists” and “drug smugglers”.
He also turned his attention to trans athletes and claimed that Biden’s focus on LGBT+ inclusion is “pushing policies that would destroy women’s sports”. Trump said: “Young girls and women are incensed that they are now being forced to compete against those who are biological males.”
He also claimed that women’s sports will “die” if trans women are allowed to compete and that cisgender women’s records will “easily be broken by somebody who was born a man”.
