While the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on March 14 will be a Who’s Who of reactionaries, Tea Party types and assorted hobgoblins, at least one notable group won’t be making the pilgrimage to D.C. for the neo-con covention.
The Republican LGBT group GOProud, which has been blocked from attending in years past, is still banned this year. GOProud director Jimmy LaSalvia responded to a tweet from Fox News Latino’s A.J. Delgado on February 15, writing “We got kicked out last year because we are gay. Nothing has changed. We won’t be at #CPAC.”
This is a big year for CPAC: With conservatives still smarting from November, It’ll be a time for them to reassess—to consider abandoning the language of hate—and then to go right on as they always have.
There are also some big players in the Republican Party coming, including Paul Ryan, Rand Paul and the GOP’s new great not-s0-white hope, Marco Rubio (water-drinking problem be damned).
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Setting aside our usual bafflement over GOProud’s worship of a party that rejects them, we’re genuinely surprised outfits like CPAC continue to reject the LGBT representatives in their midst.
There’s been such an obvious sea change about homosexuality in recent years—among conservatives, too—that to overtly discriminate against gays who share your values isn’t just wrong, it’s stupid. Their money is just as green as yours. Their hearts are as small and icy. (Kidding, mostly.)
As the Guardian‘s Tom Rogen put it:
Times are changing. But until we conservatives are willing to face up to the unmitigated absurdity of liberty alongside sexual segregation, swathes of otherwise reachable voters will continue to regard our movement as undeserving of their support. Over time, our electoral prospects will be diminished and our important arguments on issues like gun rights, the size of the state and taxation, will be delegitimized as products of a hypocritical ideology.
Um, Tom, isn’t that time already here?
Little-Kiwi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2R6jqMysHaA
Little-Kiwi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrv31BCGeqY