Trump appoints openly gay LGBT activist to director of intelligence agencies
President Donald Trump has tapped Richard Grenell, currently the United States ambassador to Germany, as acting director of National Intelligence, making him the first openly gay member of the White House Cabinet in history. As intelligence head, Grenell will oversee the nation’s seventeen spy agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Department of Homeland Security, and the intelligence arms of each branch of the U.S. military. Grenell is an interesting hybrid: an out gay man loved by most conservative pundits and politicos, who at the same time is often the target of scorn by liberals, especially LGBT media and political organizations. “He’s not necessarily popular with LGBTQ people — or women or Germans,” declared a commentary in The Advocate, soon after Grenell’s appointment was announced. “He denounced gay Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg for calling out Vice President Mike Pence’s anti-LGBTQ r