The latest installment of \u201cJurassic Park\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn\u2019t stop to think if they should,\u201d 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 \u201cSeinfeld\u201d get what he deserved. A brilliant line or movie monologue \u2014 like Goldblum\u2019s gem \u2014 can not only advance a fictional plot, but also foster conversations about real life. Consider how Michael B. Jordan\u2019s character Killmonger challenged the idea of isolationism and Jack Nicholson\u2019s line \u201cYou can\u2019t handle the truth\u201d explored what it takes to defend this country, morally.<\/p>\n
One of my all-time favorite movie monologues was delivered by the late Philip Seymour Hoffman in the 1999 cult classic \u201cFlawless.\u201d In the scene, Hoffman \u2014 portraying a no-nonsense drag queen \u2014 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re ashamed of us, but we\u2019re not ashamed of you,\u201d the speech begins. \u201cAs long as you go down on your Banana Republic knees \u2026 you\u2019re my sisters and I love you. I do. And f\u2014 off!\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2019s first term became the country\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
In a Truth Social post back in December, Trump said that in the envoy role, Grenell would \u201cwork in some of the hottest spots around the World, including Venezuela and North Korea.\u201d It seems one of Grenell\u2019s special missions was to sell America on the idea that gender identity and transgender healthcare are outside the realm of what \u201cnormal gays\u201d are concerned with.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Not long after Hoffman\u2019s character went off in \u201cFlawless\u201d in 1999, Ken Mehlman was appointed President George W. Bush\u2019s director of political affairs and spent years working against legalizing same-sex marriage \u2014 as we now know, from the closet. In 2010, Mehlman, a former chairman of the Republican Party, came out as gay<\/a>. Biographers have documented J. Edgar Hoover\u2019s relationships with men even as he was driving the Lavender Scare. His accomplice, Roy Cohn, has a similar story.<\/p>\n 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%<\/a>. In between the two elections, we saw a relentless Republican-led attack on LGBTQ+ rights of which Trump has often been the instigator.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t know what Grenell considers \u201cnormal gay\u201d behavior, but he does not represent normal gay voting. The idea that he could speak for the community\u2019s 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<\/a> wasn\u2019t a \u201cnormal gay\u201d 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\u2019s what makes the gay rights movement so beautiful, so American, so worthy of pride and celebration.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s also why it\u2019s so weird, given the obvious concern rippling through the LGBTQ+ community because of Trump\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n @LZGrandersonShow<\/a><\/p>\n Insights <\/p>\n L.A. Times Insights<\/a> delivers AI-generated analysis on Voices content to offer all points of view. Insights does not appear on any news articles. <\/p>\n Viewpoint This article generally aligns with a Left<\/b> point of view. Learn more about this AI-generated analysis<\/a> Perspectives <\/p>\n The following AI-generated content is powered by Perplexity. The Los Angeles Times editorial staff does not create or edit the content.<\/p>\n Ideas expressed in the piece<\/p>\n Different views on the topic<\/p>\n\n
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