CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, tonight (shockingly) held a gay rights panel titled “A Rainbow on the Right: Growing the Coalition, Bringing Tolerance Out of the Closet.” The panel’s existence was thanks to the libertarian group, Competitive Enterprise Institute, which sponsored the event after it was confirmed gay Tea Party group GOProud would be banned this year, again.
How did it go?
Among the speakers were Jimmy LaSalvia, GOProud‘s co-founder, who said, “We have tolerated something in out movement for far too long: bigotry against gay people,” according to Alex Seitz-Wald at Salon:
LaSalvia, deploying stronger language than he’s used in the past, said “bigotry has to be called out and condemned.” It’s the “same as racism,” he said. He continued: “If we don’t stand up to it, everyone will think we agree with it.”
He also said that he thinks homophobia “contributes more to conservatives’ image problem than anything else,” because there are gay people in every community and demographic group and almost every family in the country. Opposition to marriage equality alone, however, is not bigotry, he added.
Slated to appear on the panel, in addition to LaSalvia were Fred Smith of CEI, Liz Mair, Jonah Goldberg, Margaret Hoover, and Jennifer Rubin.
Here’s a Storify story of tweets about tonight’s event and how it went:
Image, top, by Dave Weigel via Twitter
Related:
CPAC Bans Gay Republican Group — But Gets A Gay Rights Panel In Return
CPAC Urged To Hold Panel On Why ‘Homosexual Movement Prone To Violence, Terror, And Treason’
In Policy Flip, Gay GOP Group Now Officially Supports Same-Sex Marriage
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Thanks for the article.
The Libertarians had gay panels for the Dems in the 70's, now the GOP is waking up.
For info on people using voluntary Libertarian tools on similar and other issues worldwide, please see the non-partisan Libertarian International Organization @ http://www.Libertarian-International.org ….
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