Jimmy LaSalvia

After the brouhaha over GOProud's participation in this year's CPAC finally died down, new American Conservative Union Chairman Al Cardenas started suggesting that the gay conservative group might not be welcome at next year's conference, saying that groups that support issues like the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell or gay marriage which are "not within the scope of what we believe the three legs of the stool of the [conservative] movement" will not be allowed to sponsor the event.

GOProud's Jimmy LaSalvia tells CNN that, given this new standard, he expects that he group will be back next year because a) DADT repeal is over and done and b) they think marriage should be left to the states ... and then goes on to assert that they support the repeal of DOMA and oppose a Federal Marriage Amendment: 

GOProud only works on federal issues. We believe that marriage and family laws should be the province of the states – as has been the case since the founding of our nation. We believe that states should be free to make decisions regarding marriage and family laws without the intervention of the federal government. The decisions of each individual state should be respected by the federal government. This is the essence of federalism. Accordingly, we support the repeal of DOMA, and oppose any effort to pass a Federal Marriage Amendment to the US Constitution.

Ummm ... I'm pretty sure that the Religious Right groups who caused this CPAC fuss in the first place consider DOMA and a marriage amendment to be key parts of the social conservative leg of the three legged stool.  

Given that Cardenas has made it clear that re-unifying the conservative movement at CPAC is a key priority, it seems hard to imagine how GOProud would be invited back next year when they are openly opposing things that are key Religious Right priorities.

Erick Erickson of the prominent right-wing blog RedState and a commentator for CNN hasn’t made any comments about the CPAC boycott controversy until now, attacking GOProud and its ally Grover Norquist for criticizing the Religious Right. GOProud’s leaders Chris Barron and Jimmy LaSalvia recently lashed out at social conservative leaders boycotting CPAC as “nasty, anti-gay bigots” in an interview with Metro Weekly, and Erickson is not happy about it:

I have done my best to stay out of this business, keep my mouth shut, and appreciate my friends on both sides of the CPAC divide. Had I not seen this particular attack by GOProud against long time solid conservatives I’d continue keeping my mouth shut. But this is too much. And my guess is that there aren’t many if any willing to call foul, so I will do it.

As someone who spent time trying to give them the benefit of the doubt, I accept this as conclusive proof that, while it is a Republican organization, GOProud is not a conservative organization.

…

You really should read the whole thing. You’ll learn that should you disagree with GOProud, you are a bigot too. In fact there are lots of delightful quotes. GOProud has taken one of the favorite leftist bullet points and brought it straight into CPAC. You oppose affirmative action? You’re a racist. You oppose gay marriage? You’re a bigot.

Wonderful trick. Sadly, it is being used on real heros within the conservative movement, including Cleta Mitchell, a board member of the American Conservative Union.

According to the dictionary, a bigot is a person “obstinately convinced of the superiority or correctness of [their] own opinions and prejudiced against those who hold different opinions.”

Chris Baron might want to look in the mirror.

…

While Cleta Mitchell was fighting for children, Chris Baron was signing up to work for the champions of child killing.

While Cleta Mitchell was fighting for people’s right to work, GOProud was aligning itself with the AFL-CIO and the SEIU.

While Cleta Mitchell was helping the Senate Conservatives Fund get people like Pat Toomey, Marco Rubio, Ron Johnson, Rand Paul, Mike Lee, and others elected, GOProud was attacking Jim DeMint.

While Cleta Mitchell was in super secret meetings of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy this week, GOProud was attacking Tim Pawlenty for daring to defend conservative positions on don’t ask-don’t tell.

Those groups and people who have sat out CPAC this year have done so not because they hate the gays, as Grover Norquist and GOProud would have you believe, but because GOProud is not a conservative organization and its agenda is not a conservative agenda.

For that, they are called losers and nasty bigots.

These losers and nasty bigots have done a lot more for the conservative movement than GOProud. And I am very happy to call them my friends.

This week, I’d much rather be with them than be at CPAC.

Earlier today we noted how Grover Norquist is continuing to come under attack from Religious Right leaders for having signed on to serve on the board of GOProud, the conservative gay organization.

While Norquist has yet to fight back, GOProud is not being so cautious, blasting the Family Research Council as a bunch of phony conservatives and calling them (and Mike Huckabee) "dinosaurs headed to political extinction":

Today, GOProud, the only national organization of gay conservatives and their allies, responded to attacks from the anti-gay Family Research Council. "Over the last week, the Family Research Council has shown its true colors - attacking GOProud for working with the National Rifle Association and Gun Owners of America to protect 2nd Amendment rights, attacking GOProud for supporting cutting taxes on American families, and for supporting the free market healthcare reform proposal offered by Senators Richard Burr (R-NC) and Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK)," said Jimmy LaSalvia, Executive Director. "These attacks make it clear the Family Research Council doesn't care one iota about the conservative agenda."

GOProud isn't the only organization that has come under fire from Tony Perkins and company. In March, Perkins attacked tea party organizations, Freedom Works, and the Contract from America. Perkins' attacks followed former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee's criticism of the Conservative Political Action Conference, an event GOProud sponsored. "We wear attacks from Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council as badges of honor," said Christopher Barron, Chairman of GOProud's Board. "The rise of the new right and the tea party movement in this country is a total reputation of their ‘big government conservatism."

"Tony Perkins and his cronies at the Family Research Council aren't for limited government," continued Barron. "They support policies, like the federalization of marriage and family laws, which would represent one of the greatest usurpation of state's rights in the history of this country."

"Tony Perkins referred to GOProud's opposition to the death tax and Obamacare as ‘radical' and has singled out our organization's support for urban economic empowerment zones first championed by conservative icon Jack Kemp," said LaSalvia. "Maybe Tony Perkins could explain to conservatives everywhere exactly what is so radical about supporting these conservative policies?"

"Big government conservatives like Tony Perkins and Mike Huckabee are dinosaurs, headed to political extinction. The truth is that the conservative movement has moved on, and has done so without them," concluded LaSalvia.

Accuracy in Media's Cliff Kincaid has once again dedicated his latest colmun to not only defending the proposed legislation in Uganda that mandates life in prison and, in some cases, the death penalty for gays, but to attacking Sen. Tom Coburn for opposing the bill and for associating himself with gays: 

In a case of strange political bedfellows, conservative Republican Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma has joined leftist comedian Al Franken, a Democratic senator from Minnesota, in sponsoring a bill denouncing Uganda's Christians for considering passage of legislation to outlaw certain unhealthy and immoral homosexual practices.

The original sponsor of the U.S. Senate bill (S. Res. 409) is Democratic Senator Russell Feingold of Wisconsin, who supports the entire "gay rights" agenda, including forcing Christian-owned businesses to accept homosexual employees under the so-called Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).

Echoing the claims of liberals in the media, who have targeted Uganda for isolation and a denial of foreign aid for considering the legislation, Coburn has called it "an absurd proposal to execute gays" that somehow threatens progress against AIDS.

...

Coburn spokesman John Hart confirmed that the senator has also been working with a "gay" Republican group, GOProud, to defeat the Ugandan bill.

On the website of the group, which is co-sponsoring the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C. next week, Jimmy LaSalvia, Executive Director of GOProud, declared, "We were thrilled to have had the opportunity to work with Dr. Coburn back in December when he forcefully spoke out against the proposed Ugandan law, and we are pleased that he continues to lead on this issue."

LaSalvia was previously director of programs and policy at the Log Cabin Republicans, another Republican homosexual group that seeks to water down the GOP's commitment to traditional values.

Conservative and Christian groups have denounced CPAC organizer David Keene of the American Conservative Union for accepting GOProud as a sponsor. Keene previously accepted CPAC sponsorship money from George Soros-funded groups such as the ACLU and the Drug Policy Alliance.