Last week, as Sen. J.D. Vance prepared to accept the Republican Party’s nomination to be Donald Trump’s running mate, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow shed light on the unusual path that led him there. Maddow said, “Writing a memoir and otherwise being Peter Thiel’s intern is not usually the way you get to be a vice presidential nominee.” As it turns out, Peter Thiel, the openly gay conservative billionaire and co-founder of PayPal, has played a pivotal role in Vance's career. Vance first encountered Thiel during a 2011 lecture at Yale, a moment Vance later described as “the most significant” of his time there. Thiel’s ideas about elite institutions and Christianity inspired Vance to pivot from law to technology. Thiel recommended Vance for a position at biotech firm Circuit Therapeutics in 2013 and later backed his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy. In July 2021, Vance transitioned into politics by launching his campaign for the U.S. Senate seat from Ohio, with Thiel financing the effort to the tune of $15 million. This shift in Vance’s career also marked a shift in his stance on Trump. Thiel played a key role in securing an endorsement from Trump, arranging a meeting at Mar-a-Lago. Trump acknowledged the change, stating, “Like some others, J.D. Vance may have said some not-so-great things about me in the past, but he gets it now, and I have seen that in spades.” #Queer Up Politics