News
Ric Grenell in ’92: ‘Only whores and very small children wear red shoes’
Trump’s gay nominee has history of derogatory comments about women
Richard Grenell said in 1992: “Only whores and very small children wear red shoes.”
(Screen capture public domain)
President Trump’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to Germany — the first major openly gay appointment of the administration — came under fire in the recent past for snide comments on Twitter about the physical appearance of several prominent women — but a 1995 Washington Post profile story on him reveals he was making such comments long before the arrival of social media.
The more than 20-year-old profile piece on Ric Grenell, sent to the Washington Blade on Saturday, takes a look at his personality long before the Trump nominee served as spokesperson for the U.S. mission to the United Nations during the George W. Bush administration or as a Fox News commentator. The piece was written during Grenell’s days as press secretary to Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) at the dawn of the “Gingrich Revolution.”
A key portion of the profile quotes Laurie Blackford, then a producer for Chris Matthews long before he came to MSNBC, recalling remarks Grenell allegedly made to a fellow campaign staffer on the 1992 Bush-Quayle re-election campaign.
“One of our staff people came in and had on a flowery dress and red shoes and Ric looked at her and said, ‘Didn’t your mother ever tell you only whores and very small children wear red shoes?'” Blackford is quoted as saying.
At the time the profile piece was written three years later, the Post sought a response on the remarks from Grenell, who acknowledged them as a joke.
“You know that was a joke,” Grenell is quoted as saying while chuckling. “But come on. Red shoes?”
The remarks are consistent with comments Grenell has made about women on Twitter. One 2011 tweet directed at Rachel Maddow, the lesbian MSNBC host, said she “needs to take a breath and put on a necklace” and another compared her look to that of pop singer Justin Bieber.
One tweet directed at Callista Gingrich questioned whether she “snaps on” her hair. At around the same time, Grenell tweeted Hillary Clinton “is starting to look like Madeleine Albright.”
Grenell, who also has a history of antagonizing reporters on Twitter, deleted and apologized for those tweets years ago during his brief tenure of several days with Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign. Although some point to the tweets as the reason he didn’t last long with the campaign, others say the appointment of a gay person to the GOP campaign was nixed after objections from anti-gay activists.
During Grenell’s confirmation hearing last week, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) queried him about his comments on Twitter about women, asking him if he regrets those words and can understand the concern about the impact they’ll have on his role in Germany.
“Anybody who knows me knows that I am a very caring person and very sensitive — and I also appreciate good humor,” Grenell said in response. “Unfortunately, there are times where what was intended to be humorous turned out to be not so humorous, and, again, that was never my intention and I regret that.”
The 1995 Post profile piece — written before Grenell met his partner of 15 years, Matt Lashey — never mentions Grenell’s sexual orientation.
The article, titled “Republican Party Animal,” says the then 28-year-old Grenell “is not really in the market for a relationship” between “working out twice a day, playing softball with Hill friends and just getting through each day’s work.”
“I have no time,” Grenell is quoted as saying. “It wouldn’t be fair.”
The article also quotes Blackford as saying Grenell was “the most perfect-looking person — perfectly pressed and dressed.”
Despite Grenell’s support for Trump and other GOP presidential candidates, the article calls him a fan of then-first lady Hillary Clinton.
But the article also quotes Grenell as expressing consternation over the election of Bill Clinton in 1992 over incumbent President George H.W. Bush.
“I don’t even like it when people say Clinton won. A majority of the people did not vote for him,” Grenell is quoted as saying. “Not only had my candidate lost, but I also lost my job. I felt that we had truly let President Bush down and I was depressed.”
Grenell didn’t respond to the Blade’s request for comment on the 1992 remarks about women at the time of his nomination to the Trump administration. Although the Senate has held a confirmation hearing, it has yet to hold a vote on his confirmation as U.S. ambassador to Germany.
State Department
Democracy Forward files FOIA request for State Department bathroom policy records
April 20 memo outlined anti-transgender rule
Democracy Forward on Tuesday filed a Freedom of Information Act request for records on the State Department’s new bathroom policy.
A memo titled “Updates Regarding Biological Sex and Intimate Spaces, Including Restrooms” that the State Department issued on April 20 notes employees can no longer use bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity.
“The administration affirms that there are two sexes — male and female — and that federal facilities should operate on this objective and longstanding basis to ensure consistency, privacy, and safety in shared spaces,” State Department spokesperson Tommy Piggot told the Daily Signal, a conservative news website that first reported on the memo. “In line with President Trump’s executive order this provides clear, uniform guidance to the department by grounding policy in biological sex as determined at birth.”
President Donald Trump shortly after he took office in January 2025 issued an executive order that directed the federal government to only recognize two genders: male and female. The sweeping directive also ordered federal government agencies to “effectuate this policy by taking appropriate action to ensure that intimate spaces designated for women, girls, or females (or for men, boys, or males) are designated by sex and not identity.”
Democracy Forward’s FOIA request that the Washington Blade exclusively obtained on Tuesday is specifically seeking a copy of the memo that details the State Department’s new bathroom policy. Democracy Forward has also requested “all” memo-specific communications between the State Department’s Bureau of Global Public Affairs and the Daily Signal from April 1-21.
Federal Government
House Republicans push nationwide ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill
Measures would restrict federal funding for LGBTQ-affirming schools
Republicans have been gaining ground in reshaping education policy to be less inclusive toward LGBTQ students at the state level, and now they are turning their focus to Capitol Hill.
Some GOP lawmakers are pushing for a nationwide “Don’t Say Gay” bill, doubling down on their commitment to being the party of “traditional family values” by excluding anyone who does not identify with their sex at birth.
The largest anti-LGBTQ education legislation to reach the House chamber is House Bill 2616 — the Parental Rights Over the Education and Care of Their Kids Act, or the PROTECT Kids Act. The PROTECT Kids Act, proposed by U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.), and co-sponsored by U.S. Reps. Burgess Owens (R-Utah), Mary Miller (R-Ill.), Robert Onder (R-Mo.), and Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.), would require any public elementary and middle schools that receive federal funding to require parental consent to change a child’s gender expression in school.
The bill, which was discussed during Tuesday’s House Rules Committee hearing, would specifically require any schools that get federal money from the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 — which was created to minimize financial discrepancies in education for low-income students — to get parental approval before identifying any child’s gender identity as anything other than what was provided to the school initially. This includes getting approval before allowing children to use their preferred locker room or bathroom.
It reads that any school receiving this funding “shall obtain parental consent before changing a covered student’s (1) gender markers, pronouns, or preferred name on any school form; or (2) sex-based accommodations, including locker rooms or bathrooms.”
LGBTQ rights advocates have criticized both national and state efforts to require parental permission to use a child’s preferred gender identity, as it raises issues of at-home safety — especially if the home is not LGBTQ-affirming — and could lead to the outing of transgender or gender-curious students.
A follow-up bill, HB 2617, proposed by Owens, one of the bill’s co-sponsors, prevents the use of federal funding to “advance concepts related to gender ideology,” using the definition from President Donald Trump’s 2025 Executive Order 14168, making that an enshrined definition in law of sex rather than just by executive order. There is also a bill making its way through the senate with the same text— Senate Bill 2251.
Advocates have also criticized this follow-up legislation, as it would restrict school staff — including teachers and counselors — from acknowledging trans students’ identities or providing any support. They have said that this kind of isolation can worsen mental health outcomes for LGBTQ youth and allows for education to be politicized rather than being based in reality.
David Stacy, the Human Rights Campaign’s vice president of government affairs, called this legislation out for using LGBTQ children as political pawns in an ideology fight — one that could greatly harm the safety of these children if passed.
“Trans kids are not a political agenda — they are students who deserve safety and affirmation at school like anyone else,” Stacy said in a statement. “Despite the many pressing issues facing our nation, House Republicans continue their bizarre obsession with trans people. H.R. 2616 does not protect children. It targets them. This bill is cruel, and we’re prepared to fight it.”
This is similar to Florida House Bills 1557 and 1069, referred to as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill and “Don’t Say They” bill, respectively, restricting classroom discussions on sexual orientation and gender identity, prohibiting the use of pronouns consistent with one’s gender identity, expanding book banning procedures, and censoring health curriculum.
The American Civil Liberties Union is tracking 233 bills related to restricting student and educator rights in the U.S.
Botswana’s government has repealed a provision of its colonial-era penal code that criminalized consensual same-sex sexual relations.
The country’s High Court in 2019 struck down the provision. The Batswana government in 2022 said it would abide by the ruling after country’s Court of Appeals upheld it.
The government on March 26 announced the repeal of the penal code’s “unnatural offenses” section that specifically referenced any person who “has carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature” and “permits any other person to have carnal knowledge of him or her against the order of nature.”
Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals of Botswana, a Batswana advocacy group known by the acronym LEGABIBO, challenged the criminalization law with the support of the Southern Africa Litigation Center. LEGABIBO in a statement it posted to its Facebook on April 25 welcomed the repeal.
“For many, these provisions were not just words on paper — they were lived realities,” said LEGABIBO. “They affected access to healthcare, safety, employment, and the freedom to love and exist openly.”
“LEGABIBO believes that the deletion of these sections is a necessary and long-overdue step toward restoring dignity and aligning our legal framework with constitutional values of equality and human rights,” it added. “It is a clear message that LGBTIQ+ persons are not criminals, and that their lives and relationships deserve protection, not punishment.”
LEGABIBO further stressed that “while this does not erase the harm of the past, it creates space for healing, inclusion, and continued progress toward full equality.”
Democracy Forward files FOIA request for State Department bathroom policy records
House Republicans push nationwide ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill
Botswana repeals colonial-era sodomy law
LGBTQ people are leaving Orthodox Judaism behind
Madonna makes rare club appearance in West Hollywood
Second trans member announces plans to resign from Capital Pride board
Adoption under suspicion
Why we need to recognize and celebrate Lesbian Day of Visibility
Calendar: April 24-30
