--- title: Republican Convention: Read Peter Thiel's Speech description: Silicon Valley Billionaire Peter Thiel was the first openly gay Republican in 16 years to speak at the Republican National Convention. canonical: https://time.com/4417679/republican-convention-peter-thiel-transcript/ author: Will Drabold article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-22T02:55:15.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T23:27:07.258Z article:section: Politics og:title: Read Peter Thiel's Speech at the Republican Convention og:description: "I am proud to be gay. I am proud to be a Republican." og:url: https://time.com/4417679/republican-convention-peter-thiel-transcript/ og:site_name: TIME og: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 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIMEPOL RNC og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read Peter Thiel's Speech at the Republican Convention twitter:description: "I am proud to be gay. I am proud to be a Republican." twitter: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 ---  # Read Peter Thiel's Speech at the Republican National Convention by [Will Drabold](https://time.com/author/will-drabold/) ## Will Drabold Jul 22, 2016 2:55 AM UTC  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](https://time.com/author/will-drabold/) ## Will Drabold Jul 22, 2016 2:55 AM UTC 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/) 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"}}]}] ```