--- description: Silicon Valley Billionaire Peter Thiel was the first openly gay Republican in 16 years to speak at the Republican National Convention. title: Read Peter Thiel's Speech at the Republican Convention image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9bb243b625f0620d/69889eb9f887dc800fe96bbc/peter-thiel-donald-trump-republican-national-convention-rnc-221.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Politics](/section/politics/) ## Politics Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Republican National Convention](/tag/republican-national-convention/) ## Republican National Convention Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Read Peter Thiel's Speech at the Republican National Convention by [Will Drabold](/author/will-drabold/) ## Will Drabold Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 22, 2016 2:55 AM CUT  Peter Thiel delivers remarks in the Quicken Loans Arena on the final day of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland on Thursday, July 21, 2016. Peter Thiel delivers remarks in the Quicken Loans Arena on the final day of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland on Thursday, July 21, 2016.Shawn Thew—EPA by [Will Drabold](/author/will-drabold/) ## Will Drabold Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 22, 2016 2:55 AM CUT Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel spoke about American prosperity at the Republican national convention Thursday. The PayPal founder and Facebook investor was the first openly gay Republican in 16 years to speak at a GOP convention, a fact he noted briefly. “Of course, every American has a unique identity,” he said. “I am proud to be gay. I am proud to be a Republican. But most of all I am proud to be an American.” **Read More:** [_How Donald Trump Courted Gay Voters at the Convention_](http://time.com/4418475/republican-convention-peter-thiel-lgbt-gay-rights/ "undefined") Read Thiel’s remarks as prepared for delivery: --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4417679/republican-convention-peter-thiel-transcript/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4417679/republican-convention-peter-thiel-transcript/"},"headline":"Read Peter Thiel's Speech at the Republican National Convention","datePublished":"2016-07-22T02:55:15.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T23:27:07.258Z","description":"Silicon Valley Billionaire Peter Thiel was the first openly gay Republican in 16 years to speak at the Republican National Convention.","url":"https://time.com/4417679/republican-convention-peter-thiel-transcript/","keywords":["Republican National Convention","2016 Election topic","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9bb243b625f0620d/69889eb9f887dc800fe96bbc/peter-thiel-donald-trump-republican-national-convention-rnc-221.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Will Drabold","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/will-drabold/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9bb243b625f0620d/69889eb9f887dc800fe96bbc/peter-thiel-donald-trump-republican-national-convention-rnc-221.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"TIMEPOL RNC","caption":"Peter Thiel delivers remarks in the Quicken Loans Arena on the final day of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland on Thursday, July 21, 2016.","creditText":"Shawn Thew—EPA","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/republican-national-convention/","name":"Republican National Convention"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4417679/republican-convention-peter-thiel-transcript/","name":"Read Peter Thiel's Speech at the Republican National Convention"}}]}] ```