Billionaire GOProud-Loving Gay Peter Thiel Is Losing His Friends’ Billions

Peter Thiel, the gay billionaire who was one of the original investors in both PayPal and Facebook, is losing everybody’s money. The same guy who’s helped raise cash for the American Foundation for Equal Rights, donated money to anti-gay political groups, and welcomed Ann Coulter and the GOProud gays into his home when he hosted Homocon is also leading Clarium Capital Management, a hedge fund that for the third straight year posted serious losses. From a high point of some $7.2 billion in assets, Thiel’s firm has seen its balance sheet slide 90 percent; in 2010 alone, its value dropped 23 percent following 2009’s 25 percent depreciation. (That still leaves Clarium with a 12 percent annual return when averaged over its lifetime, which began in 2002.) To be fair, Thiel doesn’t charge clients to manage money, just if he makes them money; he takes 25 percent cut of profits, which is more than the industry standard of 20 percent. But 25 percent of zero is, uh, zero. But since when did a net worth that had at least nine zeroes in it mean donations to anti-gay groups (and sometimes anti-gay gay groups) would come to a halt? [photo via]