PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel accused his Silicon Valley colleagues of “intolerance” of conservatives, citing his own experience as a gay supporter of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.
“Louder voices have sent a message that they do not intend to tolerate the views of one half of the country,” Thiel told reporters at the National Press Club. “This intolerance has taken on some bizarre forms. The Advocate, a magazine which once praised me as a ‘gay innovator,’ even published an article saying that, as of now, I am, and I quote, ‘not a gay man,’ unquote, because I don’t agree with their politics. The lie behind the buzzword of diversity could not be made more clear: If you don’t conform, then you don’t count as diverse, no matter what your personal background.”
Thiel was referring to an Advocate op-ed that cited his disinterest in the North Carolina bathroom law as evidence that Thiel had abandoned a central aspect of gay identity as understood in recent decades. “By the logic of gay liberation, Thiel is an example of a man who has sex with other men, but not a gay man. Because he does not embrace the struggle of people to embrace their distinctive identity,” Connecticut College professor Jim Brown wrote. “The gay liberation movement has left us a powerful legacy, and protecting that legacy requires understanding the meaning of the term ‘gay’ and not using it simply as a synonym for same-sex desire and intimacy.”
Thiel dismissed Brown’s claim and accused liberals of engaging in intolerance as a corollary to his suggestion that Trump’s supporters should not be viewed as intolerant. Trump represents an enduring frustration with political leadership that is “not going away,” Thiel emphasized.
“I don’t agree with everything Donald Trump has said and done and I don’t think the millions of other people voting for him do either,” Thiel said. “Nobody thinks his comments about women were acceptable. I agree they were clearly offensive and inappropriate. But I don’t think voters pull the lever in order to endorse a candidate’s flaws. It’s not a lack of judgement that leads Americans to vote for Trump. We’re voting for Trump because we judge the leadership of our country to have failed.”
