CLEVELAND — Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel received a standing ovation at the Republican National Convention on Thursday night when he said he was proud to be gay, proud to be Republican and “most of all” proud to be an American.
The libertarian-leaning co-founder of PayPal and venture capitalist made his convention debut just days after the Republican Party adopted one of the most anti-gay platforms in history. So Thiel was taking a calculated risk in making his sexuality an issue in his speech. Some gay delegates said they were afraid he’d be booed.
But Thiel received a warm reception in the convention hall, even after he essentially chided the platform committee for debating which bathrooms transgender people should use. He called the debate “a distraction from our real problems.”
“Who cares?” he said of the bathroom issue.
He said he doesn’t “pretend to agree” with every plank in the party’s platform, “but fake culture wars only distract us from our economic decline. And nobody in this race is being honest about it except Donald Trump.”
The California delegation let out a cheer when Thiel said he was gay and proud, then broke into a series of “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” chants.
Makan Delrahim, a delegate from Los Angeles, said the reception to Thiel’s speech showed that the GOP was a tolerant party.
“I have a hell of a lot more respect for entrepreneurs than corporate CEOs,” Delrahim said of Thiel. “They actually create jobs.”
Hillary Clinton’s campaign quickly issued a statement on Thiel’s speech: “Unfortunately, he is speaking in support of a candidate that has run an anti-LGBT campaign and will undoubtedly continue that trend if he takes office.”
Thiel, 48, has always been known for his contrarian political views, but he still raised plenty of eyebrows in Silicon Valley when he signed up to be one of three Trump delegates from San Francisco.
He wasn’t the first openly gay person to speak at a GOP convention, but he was the first to acknowledge it from the stage during a prime time address.
Thiel is an early investor in Facebook and a member of the company’s board of directors and also recently bankrolled Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against the online gossip site Gawker, which several years ago outed Thiel as gay.
In his speech, he said he supported Trump because he’s a builder, not a politician. Although the economy looks strong in Silicon Valley, he said, “Silicon Valley is a small place. Drive out to Sacramento, or even just across the bridge to Oakland, and you won’t see the same prosperity. That’s just how small it is. Across the country, wages are flat.”
He said the government is “broken” under Democratic leadership.
“Our nuclear bases still use floppy disks. Our newest fighter jets can’t even fly in the rain. And it would be kind to say the government’s software works poorly, because much of the time it doesn’t even work at all,” he said.
“This is a staggering decline for a country that completed the Manhattan Project. We don’t accept such incompetence in Silicon Valley, and we must not accept it from our government.”
Thiel originally pumped $2 million into former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina’s SuperPAC, but later switched to Trump in a move that stunned other valley leaders turned off by the Republican nominee’s protectionist policies and jabs at Apple’s Tim Cook, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg.
Ken Yale, a GOP delegate from Dublin, said Thiel’s appearance in Cleveland shows that Trump’s reach extends beyond his white working class base.
“I know a lot of Republicans in Silicon Valley,” said Yale, a health care industry executive. “The fact that Peter is a libertarian reflects to me that there are a lot of very committed Trump people from all walks of life.”
Juan Hernandez, an alternate delegate from Santa Clara, said the fact that Thiel was invited to speak is “one of the best things that could be happening right now for the Republican Party. And it shows that Trump is inclusive of the LGBT community and respects personal liberty and freedom.”
Thiel also offers Trump a chance to appeal to young tech workers who are more attracted to Trump as a disruptive force than they are to Clinton, said Bruce Cain, who directs Stanford University’s Bill Lane Center for the American West.
“This is a play for young people who are dissatisfied with politics and idealize Silicon Valley disrupters,” Cain said.
Although Thiel could sway some techies to vote for Trump, he risks alienating many associates who oppose Trump’s protectionist trade proposals and abhor the GOP’s stand on social issues.
“By any logical calculation,” Cain said, “it’s not a smart move on his part.”
Contact Matthew Artz at 510-208-6435. Follow him at Twitter.com/Matthew_Artz.
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