Bozell Names Lady Gaga and Conan O'Brien 'Biggest Losers' for Marrying Gay Couples

Media Research Center president Brent Bozell has declared Lady Gaga and Conan O’Brien the two biggest “losers” of the year for their “eagerness to shred traditional values.” O’Brien married an openly gay staffer on his show to his partner, and Lady Gaga announced that she wants to become an ordained minister in order to marry one of her close friends to her partner. “Lady Gaga is as unattractive, in every sense of the word, as her name is stupid,” Bozell said, and he called O’Brien’s on-air marriage of two men “a disgusting scene.” The conservative activist went on to call Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s hit play “The Book of Mormon” a “ghastly show” and he also named Glee, which he once referred to as “gay propaganda,” another “loser” of the year:

The depravity of our popular culture and our eagerness to shred traditional values manifests itself every day. Lady Gaga, the top-earning woman in the music business and deemed by ABCs Barbara Walters to be one of the "most fascinating people," has a new vocation in mind. She's announced she wants to become an ordained minister of the Universal Life Church so she can marry two gay male friends.

Lady Gaga is as unattractive, in every sense of the word, as her name is stupid. She welcomed Easter with a single called "Judas" ("I'm still in love with Judas, baby.") and arrives at Christmas as Reverend Gaga. This is the same "instant online ordination" that TBS late-night host Conan O'Brien used in November in a disgusting scene to "marry" two gay males live on his television show. Gaga and Conan are two of the real cultural losers of 2011. Here are some other winners and losers:

Loser: "The Book of Mormon," the ghastly hit Broadway musical from the perpetually immature makers of "South Park." Most media outlets celebrated it as "brilliant" -- so spouted so-called drama critic Jake Tapper on ABC. But Wall Street Journal critic Terry Teachout put it best. "It's flabby, amateurish and very, very safe." Safe? Trashing the Mormons? Yes. "Making fun of Mormons in front of a Broadway crowd is like shooting trout in a demitasse cup...on the subject of imitation courage, let it be duly noted that if the title of this show were 'The Quran,' it wouldn't have opened."

Loser: The Fox show "Glee," which seems to be losing all its popularity in only its third season. After its 3-D concert movie came in 123rd for the year (with a gross of less than $12 million, about 12 percent of the take of the "The Lion King" remake), its third season lowlight was a preachy episode about the loathsome and overrated idea of virginity in these modern, enlightened times.

But the real loser might be Bozell himself, who last night on Fox News criticized Chris Matthews for joking that Newt Gingrich looked like a “car bomber” by saying that, “How long do you think Sean Hannity’s show would last if four times in one sentence he made a comment about the president of the United States and said that he looked like a skinny ghetto crackhead — which by the way, you might want to say that Barack Obama does!”

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Right Wing Leftovers

  • Maggie Gallagher explains how to explain your disapproval of marriage equality over Thanksgiving dinner.
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Right Lashes Out At Media, Clinton After Cain Revelations

Last night, Politico broke the news that during Herman Cain’s tenure as director of the National Restaurant Association in the late 1990s, two women left the trade association after settling sexual harassment claims against Cain. Cain has since denied the charges, accusing the media of leading a “witch hunt” against him and responding to one reporter by asking, “Have you ever been accused of sexual harassment?”

Like clockwork, the Right’s major media critics are rallying to Cain’s defense.

Brent Bozell of the Media Research Council even tied the allegations against Cain to the discredited accusations that Bill Clinton raped Juanita Broaddrick when he was attorney general of Arkansas. Bozell argues that while the Cain story is a “hit piece,” the media should have given more coverage to the Broaddrick allegations:

Sadly, Herman Cain’s predictions have come true. In May he stated that he was ‘ready for the same high-tech lynching that [Clarence Thomas] went through -- for the good of this country.’ That's what Politico is doing with its unsubstantiated and thoroughly hypocritical hit piece against him. Anyone in the press that gives this story oxygen is equally hypocritical.

In the eyes of the liberal media, Herman Cain is just another uppity black American who has had the audacity to leave the liberal plantation. So they must destroy him, just as they tried destroying Clarence Thomas. The richest irony here is that the same media that refused to cover evidence of an alleged rape by a state Attorney General who became President now are running stories based on unnamed sources, about offenses that aren’t a fraction as grave. But one was a liberal Democrat, the other a conservative Republican -- hence the double standard.

Rush Limbaugh is also using the Cain case to attack Clinton. Limbaugh said that coverage of the charges, which were originally made in the 1990s, amount to a racist media trying to bring down a black conservative:

You know, I guess I shouldn't be surprised, folks. After all of these years, none of us should be surprised, but I still am. Look at how quickly what is known as the mainstream media goes for the ugliest racial stereotypes they can to attack a black conservative. You know who's laughing himself silly today is Bill Clinton. (imitating Clinton) "Yeah, I really did it. Ha-ha. They praised me and they went as far out of their way as they could. Even my old buddy Carville is out there and he's saying, 'Look what happens when you drag a dollar bill through a trailer park, you get Paula Jones.' I have everybody defending me and they're going after this black guy, and they're going after him with some of the ugliest racial stereotypes I have ever seen. That's how our side does it; we get away with it. I just love it. I love watching it."

What's next, folks? A cartoon on MSNBC showing Herman Cain with huge lips eating a watermelon? What are they gonna do next? No, Snerdley, I'm not kidding. The racial stereotypes that these people are using to go after Herman Cain, what is the one thing that it tells us? It tells us who the real racists are, yeah, but it tells us that Herman Cain is somebody. Something's going on out there. Herman Cain obviously is making some people nervous for this kind of thing to happen.

Not to be outdone, Ann Coulter said on Fox News that the left is twisting civil rights laws that were meant “to protect blacks from Democrats from the South” to help “white women from Scarsdale”:

“It’s outrageous the way liberals treat a black conservative,” she told Geraldo. “This is another high-tech lynching.

Nothing liberals fear more than a black conservative. Ask Allen West. Ask Michael Steele. Ask Clarence Thomas. And even what the allegations are here, I mean, just shows you how the civil-rights juggernaut has gone off the rails. The idea of civil rights laws to begin with ironically was to protect blacks from Democrats from the South who won’t protect them. Now it’s you know, white women from Scarsdale who say, ‘Oh, I don’t like that he called me honey.’” Coulter also questioned some of the details of the report and if they merited the definition of harassment.

“It’s not groping, it’s not touching or demanding sex,” Coulter said. “It’s that he had remarks that they found inappropriate. One is he had inappropriate gestures that were not overtly sexual. Well, what were they then? This isn’t dropping your pants and saying ‘kiss it.’ This is an outrageous attack on a black conservative who is doing extremely well and will be our vice-presidential candidate.”

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Bozell: Dancing With The Stars Is "Not Going To Make Bono A Real Male"

Conservative activists continue to vehemently attack Chaz Bono and ABC over Bono’s upcoming appearance on Dancing With The Stars. Both Bono, a transgender man who has completed female-to-male gender transition surgery, and Carson Kressley, who is openly gay, have been the subject of attacks from Religious Right activists who warn that the two are “LGBT rights advocates and promote this destructive lifestyle.”

Today, Media Research Center president Brent Bozell is out with a column slamming ABC for casting Bono and Kressley. Bozell charges that “the entire transgender propaganda movement is confused”, and says that nothing will ever make “make Bono a real male.” “Nowhere in any of this celebration is the hard reality,” Bozell writes, “Despite ‘his’ low voice, and his sideburns and his awful decision to amputate his own breasts, Bono remains a woman”:

If Chaz Bono were going to perform the entire season as a man, with no reference to "his" actual gender, then ABC wouldn't be offering that LGBT educational opportunity. It is why no one should have any doubt that Chaz Bono is going to be instructing America about the need to overcome their "transphobia" -- on the show and everywhere else.

On ABC's "Good Morning America" on Sept. 6, the network used the opposition of the American Family Association, AFA, as a foil to promote the show. "It's made me realize I'm really glad I'm doing this because America really needs to see this," Bono said. "You know, it just kind of shows why for me it's important to be on the show, because so little still is known about what it means to be transgender, and there's so many just completely inaccurate stereotypes and thoughts that people have."

Four days earlier, ABC put on gay publicist Howard Bragman to call the AFA a "hate group" inspiring "hate opinions on email" that are like "people writing on a bathroom wall." AFA may as well write on bathroom walls. It's not getting a lick of airtime on ABC.

This is Bono's year of media activism, complete with a book last spring called "Transition," promoted all over the news channels and with a promotional one-hour Oprah Winfrey Network special called "Becoming Chaz," hailed as the story of a "valiant struggle of a sensitive individual to become who he really is."

Nowhere in any of this celebration is the hard reality. Despite "his" low voice, and his sideburns and his awful decision to amputate his own breasts, Bono remains a woman. It's ridiculous for ABC to argue children won't be confused by this political-correctness crusade. The entire transgender propaganda movement is confused. Indeed, there is a new sexual category to go alongside G, L, B and T --"Q" for questioning.

ABC and the rest of the media universe can do all the pretending they want, but that's not going to make Bono a real male. It's not a completely inaccurate stereotype for people to say so. Silly, old-fashioned me; I'm stuck on human beings made as males and females.

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Bozell: Bush Deserved To Kill Bin Laden More Than Obama, Therefore Deserves More Credit

Brent Bozell of the Media Research Center is complaining that former President George W. Bush should have more credit than Obama for killing Osama bin Laden because Bush wanted it more. In a column for MRC, Bozell lambasts Obama because he described his administration’s fruitful efforts to locate and kill bin Laden and for being “rude” by not hailing Bush. In a show of incredible partisanship, Bozell says that the news of bin Laden’s death would’ve been better if it occurred during Bush’s presidency rather than as a result of the Obama administration’s successful operation: “My one regret is that Bush 43 didn't get this scalp,” Bozell writes, “he deserved it more than anyone”:

Unfortunately, while the president spoke for the whole country in remembering the pain of 9/11, his remarks left a gaping hole. He made no generous bow to all the efforts of his predecessor George W. Bush as well as his team. My one regret is that Bush 43 didn't get this scalp. He deserved it more than anyone.

Instead, Obama played subtle and wholly undignified games. He underlined that Osama had “avoided capture” under Bush and “continued to operate” during his tenure. But “I directed” CIA director Leon Panetta to make getting Osama the “top priority” (as opposed to?), and “I” gave the go-ahead to the final mission. Obama also avoided Bush in a Medal of Honor ceremony on Monday afternoon. Even in a Monday night “bipartisan” event at the White House, Obama honored the “military and counter-terrorism professionals” and “the members of Congress from both parties” who offered support to the mission....but no credit for Bush.

If the roles had been reversed, you know Bush would have been more generous. It’s what Bushes do.

What about our media? No one in the media wondered if Obama was being rude. No one seemed in any hurry to give Bush credit, either. In the media’s mind’s eye, Bush just doesn’t deserve it. They didn’t like him then, they don’t like him now.

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Bozell: Kids Are “Targets” of “Gay Propaganda” on TV

Brent Bozell of the Media Research Center talks a lot about “balance,” consistently railing against the media for not giving sufficient time to conservative viewpoints. While the MRC wants “balance” in the media, apparently it could not tolerate “balance” at CPAC as the group decided to boycott the conference over the participation of the gay-inclusive organization GOProud. Now, Bozell is upset the media isn't more critical of gay teen characters on television, particularly Glee. He laments the success and portrayal of Glee actor Chris Colfer and the introduction of a transgender character on the show Degrassi, blaming “gay propaganda” for “intimidating dissidents” and blasting GLAAD for “pushing to take the pro-gay message to grade-schoolers.” Bozell writes:

Their most controversial scene was the two private-school boys singing "Baby, It's Cold Outside" to each other on the Fox show. "That was the gayest thing that has ever been on TV, period, " Colfer boasted. The magazine touted this was the hottest-selling track on the "Glee" Christmas album, which gives you a flavor of Hollywood's reverence for that holy day.

As you might suspect, Entertainment Weekly didn't plan to debate gay teen propaganda, but to encourage it, energetically. Not a single soul had anything critical to say. Not even a question. If this magazine weren't so earnestly in the tank, the story could come with a disclaimer: "This issue is an advertisement bought and paid for by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation."

Writer Jennifer Armstrong summed it up like this: "The good news: Young gay characters are on a momentous roll after years of stops and starts." EW championed under the inside headline how "networks are making up for years of on-air silence and providing inspiration for real-life youth (and parents) still searching for answers." Armstrong says gay characters are "not just an accepted, but expected part of teen-centric television." (Emphasis hers.)

They are not celebrating diversity. They are intimidating dissidents.

In their Gay Teen Timeline, we hear the gay actors proclaiming the lack of opposition. "We never received a negative word," says the gay actor on ABC's 1994 bomb "My So-Called Life." The gay teen on ABC's "Ugly Betty" insisted, "99 percent of the public response was positive." Translation: Get in line.

But there is always a new trail to blaze. TeenNick's grope opera "Degrassi" has had eight gay characters and is now normalizing "Adam," a female-to-male transgender teen. Co-creator Linda Schuyler proclaimed, "People are realizing that the lines of sexuality are not just drawn between gay guys and lesbian girls, but there is a sliding scale of sexuality, and that's something new."

No one should be surprised that Armstrong and her GLAAD allies are also pushing to take the pro-gay message to grade-schoolers. Armstrong complained gay characters are "entirely absent from mainstream sitcoms and tween networks like Disney Channel and Nickelodeon." Disney Channel issued the magazine a vague statement about their "responsibility to present age-appropriate programming for millions of kids age 6-14 around the world."

"Age-appropriate" is not a term these activists recognize. Parents should understand that their young children are the next propaganda targets.

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Heritage Foundation and Media Research Center Join CPAC Boycott

Last February the Media Research Center’s director of media analysis Tim Graham defended the American Conservative Union’s annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) from a charge that the event was “once a venue for the radical fringe.” Today, the Media Research Center joined other groups in boycotting the conference because it isn’t conservative enough. While the Heritage Foundation announced on Wednesday that it would be boycotting CPAC, the Media Research Center, led by notable right-wing activist Brent Bozell, is both the latest and one of the best-known organizations to join the boycott movement.

Back in November, the far-right American Principles Project declared that it would not take part in CPAC as long as GOProud, a conservative group that supports some gay-rights initiatives, remains a participating organization. GOProud’s status as a “participating” organization prompted many Religious Right groups to boycott CPAC, including: American Values; American Vision; the Capital Research Center; the Center for Military Readiness; Concerned Women For America; the Family Research Council; Liberty Counsel; Liberty University, and the National Organization for Marriage. The American Family Association, which boycotted CPAC last year over GOProud’s more limited involvement, has decided to sit out this year’s conference as well.

The decision by the Media Research Center and the Heritage Foundation to leave CPAC represents the most noteworthy achievement for the boycott movement since Concerned Women For America and the Family Research Center joined the cause. Focus on the Family’s political arm CitizenLink remains a chief sponsor of the event, however, CitizenLink’s head Tom Minnery said that his group will only remain in CPAC to limit GOProud’s influence and may boycott next year’s conference. Minnery told The Washington Times that “the influence of social conservatives has been missing and there needs to be more of it,” but “if the ACU can't manage this problem that they’ve brought upon themselves, we’ll have to make another decision.”

WorldNetDaily, the right-wing publication which has been attacking CPAC since the conference refused to hold a WND-sponsored panel that would showcase “birther” conspiracy theories about President Obama’s birth certificate, has been rallying behind the boycott movement. Joseph Farah, the editor-in-chief of WND, called for a “purge of the conservative movement” that would begin with CPAC’s organizers since “conservatives need God’s help, not GOProud’s.” Today, WorldNetDaily broke the story about the MRC’s decision to pull out of CPAC:

Two more big guns of the conservative movement confirmed today they are not participating in the Conservative Political Action Conference next month because of the continued participation of the homosexual activist organization GOProud.

The Heritage Foundation, the largest think tank in Washington and not known as part of the religious right, confirmed that it is not taking part in what has been the largest annual gathering of conservatives in the country. Heritage has been an active participant in CPAC every year for the last 10.

"We have withdrawn," said Mike Gonzalez, vice president of communications for the Heritage Foundation.

"We have been there for many, many years at the highest level of participation. "We believe in the traditional definition of the family,"

Gonzalez explained. "We believe in defending the family against any threats that come against it. We're not for gay marriage. We don't think institutions that have existed for millennia can be done away with at the drop of a hat." Gonzalez emphasized that the "three pillars" of conservatism, economic liberty, national defense and social conservatism, are "indivisible."

In addition, the Media Research Center, led by Brent Bozell, a longtime associate of the hosting organization, the American Conservative Union, announced it was dropping out.

"We've been there 25 years, since our inception," said Bozell. "To bring in a 'gay' group is a direct attack on social conservatives, and I can't participate in that."

The Christian ministry American Vision and related businesses Vision for America and Patriot Depot also said they have dropped out of CPAC because of GOProud.

"Homosexuals can get involved in the conservative movement any way they want, but to come in and push an agenda that's contrary to biblical values, traditional values and rational moral values, that's another thing," said Gary DeMar, president of American Vision and Vision for America. "We wouldn't exclude adulterers from participating, but if there were a group of adulterers who said 'we want adulterers' rights,' we're going to say no."

Bozell said GOProud is not a genuine conservative organization, and suggested inviting homosexual activist groups into the conservative movement could drive social conservative activists to the political sidelines.

"They attack the Family Research Council, they attack Concerned Women for America, they are proponents of repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell," he said of GOProud. "If you don't believe in the traditional family, you're not a conservative."

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Censorship Spiral: Right Now Wants to Shut Down Entire Smithsonian Exhibit

After Republican and Religious Right leaders clamored over who was more outraged about 11 seconds of video in the Smithsonian’s new “Hide/Seek” exhibit, censorship advocates now not only want the Smithsonian to remove the video in question (which they have) but to close the whole exhibit.

Georgia Republican Congressman Jack Kingston, who earlier called for congressional investigations into the Smithsonian, told the rightwing website CNSNews that while the museum’s removal of artist David Wojnarowicz video was a “positive” step, he does not think the Smithsonian went far enough: “No, I think it should be closed.”

Rep. Kingston implied that the people behind the exhibit on depictions of homosexuality in art, which was completely privately-funded, wanted to draw the attention of children:

“So you move from Elvis to the presidents of America and the civil rights display and tucked in between we have ‘Hide/Seek,’” Kingston said. “And so now you’re explaining to your 10-year-old what homoerotic art is.”

“I think they let the kinky push logic out of the way and they know that,” Kingston said. “I don’t think these are stupid people. I think this is an ‘in your face’ exhibit and ‘aren’t we cool,’ and ‘we’re doing this and not only are we doing something edgy, but you’re paying us for it -- ha, ha.’”

Brent Bozell of the rightwing Media Research Center said on CNN that since in his opinion the majority of Americans would disapprove of the exhibit, it should not be featured in the Smithsonian at all. “It’s not about one piece,” Bozell claims, “it’s about an entire exhibit full of all sorts of pieces.”

Watch:

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Party (Again) At Brent Bozell's House!

Right after the election in 2008, a group of right-wing leaders gathered at Brent Bozell's house to lick their wounds and begin plotting their return.

They are now crediting the meeting with laying the groundwork for the republican gains in the last election and so they are gathering once again to strategize ways to solidify and expand their gains in the next election:

A group of conservative leaders who helped steer their movement away from a painful defeat in 2008 and toward an electoral comeback in 2010, plan to meet privately on Friday to map out their strategy for the next two years.

Led by Brent Bozell, president of the Media Research Center, a conservative media watchdog group, and the nephew of the late conservative icon William F. Buckley, Jr., the gathering will include a who’s who of right-leaning activists.

Joining Bozell at his mountain retreat in Stanley, Va. will be Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council; Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity, one of the most active conservative groups of 2010 election cycle; former Indiana Republican Rep. Dave McIntosh; Becky Norton Dunlop, vice president at the Heritage Foundation; Frank Gaffney, founder and president of the Center for Security Policy; Al Regnery, publisher of the American Spectator magazine; and Leonard Leo, executive vice president of The Federalist Society.

The group includes many of the same individuals who, in the words of one conservative activist, helped define President Barack Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as “far leftists” who were tipping the country “toward socialism” -- an idea that energized the conservative base this year.

...

Many of the same individuals who will gather at Bozell’s home this week took part in a similar meeting after the 2008 election, not only to lick their wounds after Obama swept into the White House and Democrats scored big gains in Congress, but also to plot a course out of the political wilderness

After that session, Bozell declared “the moderate wing of the Republican Party is dead,” and his counterpart, Tony Perkins, warned that candidates for elected officials who are “squishy on conservative principles” would no longer be tolerated.

Friday’s discussion will focus on the issues that will continue to drive movement supporters, including an emphasis on limited, constitutional government. The group also plans to look ahead to the 2012 election cycle, identifying some of the rising-star candidates who have the best chance to defeat President Obama.

To pass muster among members of this group, the activist who outlined the meeting’s agenda, said potential 2012 candidates will have to be “full-throttle, across-the-board conservatives."

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The War On Norquist Gets Personal

When the news broke that Grover Norquist had agreed to join the board of GOProud, the conservative gay group, the reaction from the Religious Right was disappointment mixed with an attempt to edify Norquist about supposedly radical nature of the group in order to get him to see the error of his ways.

When that didn't work, they tried convincing him that his willingness to work with GOProud was going to undermine his "prestige" and effectiveness as social conservatives wondered if they could trust him.

That didn't work either, so now they have gone into full-attack mode, as Brent Bozell does in his latest commentary:

Comes now the news that fiscal conservative leader Grover Norquist, a man who prides himself on forming grand working coalitions, has joined the board of a group called GOProud, calling the group “an important part of the conservative movement” with a commitment to “core conservative values.”

It’s a gay group. And Norquist thinks social conservatives are going to accept this absolute abandonment?

Traditional marriage and the right of religious people to speak out against homosexuality as a sin are “core conservative values.” Proposition 8 in California – defending the institution of marriage, the only thing the GOP won in 2008 -- was victorious because culturally conservative blacks and Hispanics joined the GOP coalition.

Norquist wants to take the GOP in the exact opposite direction now, full speed ahead, the consequences be damned ... Norquist has declared open war on social conservatives. Note to Chairman Steele: If he succeeds, and they leave the party, the GOP is ruined.

The FRC's Tom McClusky is also going after Norquist as well, openly questioning Norquist's ethics by highlighting, among other things, his ties to Jack Abramoff:

I’ve got to say, many in the conservative movement — especially among social conservatives — saw Grover Norquist’s, the president of Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), move to join the advisory council of the homosexual advocacy group GOProud as “Grover being Grover.” The phrase meaning that he is well known for his questionable affiliations (from being a middle man for convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, profiting from the oppressed Northern Mariana Islands to partnering with Poker Players Alliance to advocate for legislation that ultimately taxes the Internet) and also for his disdain of social conservative issues like life and marriage (once deriding pro-lifers as “pontificators” and on marriage that he doesn’t “focus on it.”) Yet in this case he is actually going beyond his normal “profit and party before principles” motto.

...

The argument I have heard from Grover’s supporters is that he is willing to work with anyone who fights for lower taxes. However, even here GOProud fails to live up to those standards — unless you define “fighting for lower taxes” to be limited to “fighting for lower taxes for gay families” (as opposed to for everyone). In fact, most of their “conservative” positions are centered and conditional on that the “gay community” gets special carve-outs. They oppose the Death Tax, but according to their own website they oppose it because it “discriminates against gay and lesbian couples for whom there is no marital exemption.” They opposed the health care bill, and again according to their own website, because it “does indeed discriminate against gay families”

Grover of course has every right to associate himself with whomever he wants, but he shouldn’t call himself conservative if he is willing to disregard even ATR principles. By joining GOProud’s board he is not saying “I agree with you 80 percent of the time” but is instead fully embracing their agenda.

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