Peter Thiel cheered at Republican convention after declaring 'I am proud to be gay'

Peter Theil declares that he is gay at the Republican National Conention

(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel, who made his fortune as a PayPal cofounder and as an early investor in Facebook, paid homage to American business and technology leadership at Thursday's Republican National Convention. He also criticized Hillary Clinton, saying we don't need to see Clinton's emails to know that her "incompetence is in plain sight." But Thiel, whom Gawker publicly outed in 2007, also made history at a Republican presidential convention, telling the people in Quicken Loans Arena: "I am proud to be gay, I am proud to be a Republican, but most of all, I am proud to be an American." The crowd cheered, which is historical in its own way.

"I don't pretend to agree with every plank in our party's platform," Thiel added, but "where we came from" is more important than "who we are." He spoke about America's past technological greatness and the "staggering decline of the country that completed the Manhattan Project." Today, "instead of going to Mars, we invaded the Middle East," Thiel said. "It's time to end the era of stupid wars and rebuild our country." Donald Trump's motto, Make America Great Again, isn't about recapturing the past, he said. "He's running to take us back to that bright future."

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.