Jimmy LaSalvia & Co. will file paperwork today to launch GOProud, the splinter group formed from the Log Cabin Republicans, to officially create the tax-exempt 527 political organization. Now all they need is a logo and a snazzy tagline!
Mr. LaSalvia, the new group’s executive director, points to the arithmetic. In the 2008 presidential election, between 4% and 5% of voters self-identified as gay. Of these, 27% went for John McCain. That works out to 1.4 to 1.8 million gay Republican votes.
“If you pulled the lever for John McCain in 2008, then passing hate-crimes legislation or ENDA [Employment Non-Discrimination Act] is probably not your priority,” says Mr. LaSalvia. “Most issues that are defined as ‘gay’ issues have been defined by the left. We take a different approach.”
Health care is one example. Mr. LaSalvia points out that many gays do not believe their best interests are served by government-run health care. To the contrary, he says, they believe they would be better served by private-run individual accounts that are portable, that put them in charge of their own health care, and that would allow them to designate their own beneficiaries.
Some of these issues are explored at GayPatriot.org, whose founder, Bruce Carroll, is also on the board of GOProud. From the disastrous economic policies of Massachusetts Democrat Rep. Barney Frank to the outing of gay Republicans to the importance of male sexual monogamy, this conservative site offers a perspective you just won’t see anywhere else. Even on hot-button social issues, it can make for some strange bedfellows.
Take abortion. Christopher Barron, GOProud’s chairman of the board, points to an example from a few years back, when a Maine state legislator introduced a bill that would have outlawed abortion for a child thought to be gay, in the event genetic testing ever reached that point. That politician, Mr. Barron says, received virtually no support from gay groups. Though he himself is pro-choice, he says, “I want pro-life gays to know they have a home here.”
[WSJ]
countervail
Ah the victimhood mentality continues. They operate from another universe where everything that’s never worked in the past is DEFINITELY the way to do it in the future. You can expect this splinter group to yell louder, shriller and do even less than Log Cabin Republicans.
John Santos
So let me understand; according to Mr. LaSalvia, they won’t fight for ENDA or hate crimes protections, but they will fight to stop the outing of gay Republicans? Essentially, anything that will keep queer Americans closeted, they support. It’s funny, on Gay Patriot, Bruce is fond of saying their sexuality doesn’t drive a gay conservative’s political slant. But clearly it does.
Alec
@John Santos: Well, they are Republicans, after all. Clearly, they’re going to be seeking a gay slant to GOP initiatives. That health care “idea” reminds me of HRC warming up to social security reform back in 2005 (and we all know how popular that was).
Markl
Perhaps they can call their colleagues in CA and ask them WTF this is all about:
“We support the two-parent family as the best environment for raising children, and therefore believe it is important to define marriage as being between one man and one woman. We believe public policy and education should not be exploited to present or teach homosexuality as an acceptable “alternative” lifestyle. We oppose same-sex partner benefits, child custody, and adoption.” -CA GOP 2008 Party Platform
That a party would embody discrimination in its party platform is shameful. That a gay person would participate in said party is inconceivable.
rogue dandelion
One wonders if they are proponents of exclusive monogamy, but could care less about equal marriage rights…
(ie they are batshit)
bigjake75
yeah this is too wierd…
Dennis
I’ve posted on this before, but man, this GoProud stuff pisses me off. They are not so much “gay”, rather they are just a bunch of complete assholes who coincedentally like dick (or Goddess forbid, pussy…can you imagine a lesbian GoProuder?!)
More money for the already rich, no civil rights protections for GLBT persons, the “right” to do your evil work from the protection of the closet…IMO these human abominations are nothing short of an “internal terrorist organization” aimed at destroying the GLBT community from the inside out…
“Tolerance” for these people in the name of inclusiveness is ridiculous…this is definitely one instance where we should take a play out of the reicht-wing playbook and do some community purging ourselves. “Gay” has to stand for something, and the sacrifices and hard work of all who have struggled to improve the lives of GLBT individuals is shat upon by the GoProud movement. Shame, shame, shame, and a pox onto them…
Bruno
Can we add an exemption for these people in ENDA? After all, they don’t need the protections it offers, right?
VegasTeaRoom
meh
djigoo
Great! This’ll give even more self-loathing hypocrites born with a silver cock in their mouths somewhere to go other than tea rooms and rest stops.