Should We Defend GOProud’s Right To Be Part Of CPAC?

Because don’t be fooled by the anti-LGBT crowd’s justifications. I know GOProud. I’ve chat with its tops leaders familiarly, sipped margaritas with its members convivially. I’ve listened to the organization’s president address a room full of conservatives in a speech where he made no bones about his sexuality, but never once advocated for any of the things that these anti-gay groups are using to justify this shutout. I’ve watched clips of Ann Coulter keynoting a GOProud event with a speech in which she (GO)proudly stated that marriage “is not a civil right – you’re not black.” I’ve seen ads where they sought the defeat of Barney Frank and Barbara Boxer, in favor of candidates that were on record against most of if not all LGBT rights matters. Let me tell you: This is a conservative group first and foremost — one that I would consider quite far right, in fact.

So when groups like Focus on the “homosexuality is a particularly evil lie of Satan” Family say they’ve been working on “the problem from the inside,” make no mistake: “The problems” they are discussing are not this conservative group’s political stances or expressed commitment to defeating Barack Obama, but rather the sexual orientation/gender identity/expression of the human beings who express these views. So on that, the matter of defending LGBT people against blatant discrimination, I have absolutely no problem or even hesitation standing with GOProud against the groups that’d like to “change” us all, regardless of whether we travel through D.C. aboard an elephant or a donkey. And I can stand up for this group’s right to exist and engage while concurrently suggesting that this, yet another expression of the deep anti-LGBT bias that has a stranglehold on the modern GOP, is/should be precisely the reason why involvement, in both party and conference, is such a total and utter non-starter for most proud LGBT people.”