U.S. Ambassador Richard Grenell, the first openly gay person to hold a cabinet-level position who now leads the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, “did not know” the official who was fired following a CNN report about his Christian beliefs on marriage and homosexuality, a source told The Christian Post.
Floyd Brown, author and founder of the conservative commentary site The Western Journal, was fired Wednesday following a CNN report describing Brown as an “anti-gay Obama conspiracy theorist” who opposes “acceptance of the open promotion of the gay lifestyle inside the tent of conservatism.”
The story from CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski also highlighted Brown’s comments on same-sex marriage, which Brown called “godless” and “a hoax.”
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According to an X post Thursday, Brown, who was hired as vice president of development less than a month ago, said his firing “came approximately two hours” after CNN reached out for comment on his “past writings and statements about traditional marriage and homosexual influence” in the Republican Party.
Brown also shared his response to CNN, in which he said that the past comments were “rooted in my personal Christian views” and “have no impact upon my work here at the Kennedy Center nor do they impinge on my interactions with colleagues who do incredible work for the patrons of the Center. As a Christian I am called to work with others of different beliefs and worldviews.”
He says when he asked for a reason for his dismissal and requested to speak to Grenell, the Kennedy Center president, his requests were “ignored.” Instead, Brown said he was told “at the time” of his firing to “recant your belief in traditional marriage and your past statements on the topic, or you will be fired.”
“Needless to say, I refused to recant and was shown the door,” Brown added.
Brown said that he and Grenell were both professing Christians and Brown’s “only conclusion is [Grenell] was intimidated by a [CNN] story, which hasn’t been aired or published, so he preemptively fired me for my Christian beliefs on marriage.”
When reached for comment Friday, a source familiar with the Kennedy Center told CP that Brown’s tweet “is not accurate” and denied Grenell ever met Brown.
“Grenell had not met with Brown, did not know him, and was not involved in his hiring,” the source told CP.
In his X post, however, Brown alleged he and Grenell — whom he called a “professing Christian” who is “married to a male spouse” — had, in fact, met during Brown’s time as a political organizer in Arizona, including as a volunteer chairman for Kari Lake’s failed Senate campaign in 2024.
When CP asked for further comment, Brown declined to do so.
According to a CNN rush transcript, the comments allegedly made by Brown were part of a video clip in which he compared the political utility of homosexual campaign staffers to himself.
“What most people don’t understand is that many of the Republican members have homosexual staff, and the reason that they do is because the homosexuals, usually unlike me, I had two kids at home, I had a wife at home,” CNN quoted Brown as saying.
“I had responsibilities at home, and I needed to spend time with my children. And they don’t. They didn’t. They literally worked for the member 24/7 and then went out to Adams Morgan and had their gay sex, and then came back to work the next day.”
In another clip described by CNN, Brown claimed that homosexuality was “a punishment that comes upon a nation that has rejected God.”
“And that’s why I believe it is so powerful in this nation right now,” Brown was quoted as saying. “And we have to — we have to turn and we have to really repent of all sexual sin if we want to save America. They’re debasing themselves and their humanity.”
An archived 2011 article shows that Brown criticized “GOProud” Republicans for embracing LGBT-identified conservatives. Calling homosexuality “a sin,” Brown added that the “addict is to be pitied and accepted in Christian love — but not the pusher or promoter of the agenda.”
“Our problem with GOProud and why we don’t believe they belong in the conservative tent is because they are the ‘pusher’ of their alternative lifestyle,” he said at the time.
The Kennedy Center, which traces its origins to legislation signed by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1958 to create a “national cultural center” for the United States, was named in honor of former President John F. Kennedy in 1964, shortly after his assassination.
The center describes itself as “a federal facility” and, as a result, “the Federal Government funds the maintenance and upkeep” of the institution. A 36-member bipartisan board normally oversees its operations.
In February, President Donald Trump was elected the new chair of the center after 18 board members appointed by former President Joe Biden were dismissed. Grenell, a longtime Trump ally, was named interim executive director.
However, a source familiar with the Kennedy Center told CP that the current “correct title” for Grenell is “President of the Kennedy Center.”
Grenell, who launched his political career with the 2012 Mitt Romney presidential campaign, served in the first Trump administration, where he led an effort to decriminalize homosexuality in nearly 70 nations.
