GOProud Makes Progress…and Big Mistake at Right Wing Conference
GOProud is a group of Gay libertarian-Republicans who defected from the Log Cabin Republicans (LCR). Unlike LCR, they hope to be a voice for Gays who find mindless liberalism unappealing, and Log Cabin to be an echo of the Gay Left.
Its organisation is founded by Chris Barron and has orchestrated several high-profile events, including a reception with conservative firebrand, Ann Coulter and a 2010 national fundraiser attended by Texas Senator John Cornyn, Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
Last month GOProud was in attendance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, DC. The group seemed to have made significant progress with national conservatives when it was allowed to have a recruitment and promotional booth in the CPAC Exhibit Hall of the Marriott Hotel. They were invited by the out-going Chairman of the American Conservative Union (ACU), David Keene. ACU is the umbrella group for CPAC
Unfortunately, this seemingly historical event was undermined by none other than GOProud’s Barron and also — perhaps deliberately — by the Washington, DC gay press.
CPAC was attended by over 11,000 right wing activists and approximately half of the crowd was under the age of 40. What was noticeable about GOProud’s presence was that most people, especially the younger conservatives, had absolutely no problem with a Gay conservative group at their national conference. Ann Coulter, who has a huge right wing following, spoke openly about her affection for Gay people, particularly conservative gays, and counseled the CPAC on not being judgmental before a global C-SPAN audience.
Such observations strongly indicate a generational change both in the conservative movement and the Republican Party. After all, conservatives are not entirely invisible when it comes to supporting gay marriage or civil rights.
The lead lawyer in California who successfully fought to overturn Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage, is Ted Olsen, a Bush movement conservative who also argued before the Supreme Court in the 2000 election deciding Bush v. Gore. Moreover, the Bush daughters have not only publicly attended a Gay wedding, but one of them even made a recent video supporting same-sex couples. Furthermore, some of the talking heads on FOX-NEWS openly support same-sex marriage, hate crimes legislation and anti-bullying bills.
Given all of this, you would think that Chris Barron would know how to play his cards. But he tumbled into deep trouble by being manipulated by the Far Left Gay press, who goaded him into calling high ranking CPAC Board members ugly prissy names! In particular, Barron even had, what seemed to be, a cat fight with a female board member. While such typical misognynous slurs might be witnessed in a gay ghetto full of two-faced male drama queens, the average gay-friendly straight guy would see such histrionics by a Gay man as embarrassing and pathetic.
Specifically, Barron called Cleta Mitchell, a top-ranked lawyer for the ACU,a “nasty bigot”. He also made other unfriendly and polarizing comments regarding the Heritage Foundation, the leading think tank for the American Right. Those comments ended up recorded on video! Hence, after being “disinvited” to the next year’s CPAC, Barron has apologized for his inept confrontation.
Barron’s previous statements in the national arena indicated that he was aware how vicious and manipulative the Gay press could be Last year, he said the “Gay Left equals the American Taliban”, and, in many ways, gay progressives are incredibly “intolerant” of those who do not think like they do; do not worship European socialism; do not pathologically hate straight women or do not hate Republicans. Happily, when he made these statements, many gay men and women of the Right agreed with his view of the Gay Left.
But the misstatements at CPAC do not represent the sort of behavior the Gay Right needs on the national scene. Why couldn’t Barron have simply shown up and stressed commonality with the conservatives. After all, gay exit polls from Keen News Services indicate that at least one-out-of-three Gays voted Republican last year– with South Florida gay precincts actually delivering more gay votes to successful Tea Party candidates than any other gay area of the nation. And Dallas finished second in Gay America by giving 42 percent of their votes to the GOP.
Barron should have stressed that hundreds of Gay people have participated in Tea Party rallies, phone-bank operations, and attended many GOP campaign functions! More importantly, these Gays are proud to be Americans, oppose radical Islam and want the $15 trillion Obama debt reduced — without raising taxes. And as far as divisive issues go, Barron should have just tactfully kept his mouth shut and remained a diplomat, not an agitator to please the anti-GOP Gay media.
Who knows how much damage Barron inadvertently caused, but according to the high command of the CPAC Board, GOProud will not be invited back 2012. However, individual Gay people are still welcome.