GOProud to Shut Down

Having once been a Republican activist and a precinct seat holder on the City Committee of the Republican Party of Virginia Beach I have always thought that the Log Cabin Republicans and GOProud were delusional if they seriously thought the GOP could be "changed from within."   To me, their entire relationship is akin to that of an abused spouse who continues to go back to the abusive spouse out of lack of self-esteem or some other psychological need that is detached from objective reality.  I have long maintained that the only way the GOP will change is through successive electoral defeats that force it into a permanent minority status.  A post at The Bilerico Project looks at GOProud's final succumbing to reality and disbanding.   Here are excerpts:

In 2004, GOProud was born when Jimmy LaSalvia and Chris Barron split from the Log Cabin Republicans. Fast forward to today: both have stepped down from the organization and it is shutting down for good.

GOProud has been mired by several controversies since the departure of their founders. The group has bled donors since the widely reported departure of Jimmy LaSalvia from the Republican Party earlier this year. His departure was so loud, but it focused primarily on his shift of ideology and thus projected a new image onto the organization that he helped found. 

Finding it difficult to continue without securing more funding, GOProud will be shutting down immediately - an homage to an era gone by. The shuttering is undoubtedly necessary as the organization's full effectiveness has been tarnished. 

The organization may rebrand and regroup later, but for now, the organization will no longer be functioning. Co-director Matthew Bechstein stated in an interview that the "brand is broken" and a rebrand is necessary. 

It will be interesting to see if this potential organization will be solely focused on the Republican Party or if it will start to appeal to a broader range of conservative ideologies, such as the Libertarian Party.

Former GOProud Founder Slams Republican Party's "Cultural Disease"

As many readers know, I was once, many years ago now at this point, an active Republican serving on the Virginia Beach City Committee for the GOP for over eight years.   That's where I got to know the now indicted Bob McDonnell.  But when the Christofascists takeover of the Republican Party of Virginia in earnest, I resigned from the GOP in disgust over the ongoing fusion of far right Christian religious belief with the GOP platform and, worse yet, reforming the civil laws to enforce Christofascist goals.  Many gays in the GOP did not figure out the full toxicity of the GOP or the futility of trying to "reform the party from the inside" as quickly as I did.  A case in point is Jimmy LaSalvia, a co-founder of GOProud.  In an interview with Michelangelo Signorile, LaSalvia lets loose on the religious extremist swamp fever that grips the GOP.  I wish more Republicans - both gay and straight - would open their eyes and walk away from the GOP which deserves to wither and die.  Here are highlights from the interview:

In a fiery interview, the co-founder of the conservative gay group GOProud, which made headlines in recent years after it was banned from the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), lashed out at the GOP days after announcing he's left the Republican Party, having registered as an Independent.

Jimmy LaSalvia said that among the reasons why he fled the party was that the Republican National Committee (RNC) chairman Reince Preibus told him that he was afraid of getting “a phone call from Tony Perkins [of the Family Research Council]” if the party spoke out against anti-gay rhetoric. LaSalvia charged Preibus, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), and other Republican leaders with lacking “the backbone to say to the forces of intolerance, ‘You either change or you can’t come with us on this journey.'”

LaSalvia said the GOP suffers from “a cultural disease that can’t be fixed,” and charged that the recent crop of GOP potential presidential contenders, including New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), refuse to confront the problem. He also spoke out on the recent controversy over attempts at outing GOP Congressman Aaron Schock (R-IL.), saying if Schock is gay, he has "lied about it repeatedly."  

“Intellectually, they know that the party has to change and modernize,” LaSalvia said in an interview with me on Friday on SiriusXM Progress. “It’s kind of like the drug addict who knows they have a problem, who knows the drug is not good for them, but can’t [get off the drug].”

“I did say I was embarrassed to be a Republican,” he said. “The 2012 election is when I really came to the realization that no matter how hard we tried, no matter how fast support grew, there were still the anti-gay forces in the Republican Party. While I thought they would dissolve over time, the truth is they’re tolerated. They tolerate anti-gay people and that shows a cultural disconnect and they’re so out of touch that I think you can’t fix it.”

“They cannot win the presidency with the cultural problem they have,” he said. "The problem all of those people have is that they’re not willing to stand up and say, 'The forces of intolerance in our party are wrong.' Chris Christie has the best ability to connect with people and people trust him, but he does what everyone else does and says,’Well that’s not me.’ And honestly, if you’re going to win elections, that’s not enough. You have to say, ‘Those people are wrong,’ because bigotry is something different from everything else. If you have people demonizing gay people, you have to say,’That’s wrong,’ because everyone in American knows that’s wrong. If you can’t acknowledge that, if you only say, “That’s not me, they don’t speak for me,’ that’s not enough. Because their bigotry will stain you.”

LaSalvia also addressed the recent controversy over the alleged outing of Congressman Schock (R-IL), who has voted with, and supported the positions of, anti-gay conservatives for the past several years.

"I have no idea if Aaron Schock is gay or not," he said. "And frankly, I think he's wrong on all those issues. And he's free to be wrong. The problem that Aaron is going to have if in fact he turns out to be gay, is that he's lied about it repeatedly. "

Co-Founder of GOProud Quits GOP

I have long said that being gay and supporting the Republican Party in its current state is akin to a Jew supporting the Nazi regime in the early 1930's.  Why support a party that hates you and seeks to make you a second class - or in Virginia third class - citizen.  I reached this conclusion many years ago.  Now, this reality seems to have finally sunk in with GOProud co-founder Jimmy LaSalvia who quit the GOP and now is registered as an independent.  Gay Star News looks at this common sense move.  Here are excerpts:

GOProud co-founder Jimmy LaSalvia has quit the US Republican Party over the party’s tolerance for homophobia and a leadership that he says is controlled by ‘big government conservatives.’

GOProud was founded in 2009 by former Log Cabin Republicans Christopher R Barron and LaSalvia because they felt that group was not conservative enough.

But on Monday LaSalvia posted on his blog, ‘So I changed my voter registration today – “No Party”’

‘Today, I joined the ranks of unaffiliated voters. I am every bit as conservative as I’ve always been, but I just can’t bring myself to carry the Republican label any longer. 

The other reason I am leaving is the tolerance of bigotry in the GOP. The current leadership lacks the courage to stand up to it – I’m not sure they ever will.

‘I have worked hard to help to create an atmosphere on the right where conservatives can openly support gay Americans and even support same-sex marriage. In that effort, we have won, but there is more work to do to root out the anti-gay and other forms of bigotry in the party.

‘Now I feel huge sense of freedom. I am an independent conservative. That sounds much better than “gay Republican.”’ 

I get chided by those who say one should work from within to change the GOP, but masochism has its limits.  I am glad that LaSalvia has seen the light.

GOProud co-founder Jimmy LaSalvia

GOProud co-founder Jimmy LaSalvia

Lindsey Graham Gets Possible Challenger: Gay GOProud Tea Party Activist

While not at all in the same league as the Vatican buying the apartment block that houses Europe's largest gay sauna, it is nonetheless entertaining to see that South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, a/k/a the Palmetto Queen, may be challenged in a GOP primary by a gay man.  It's a case of the closeted queen being challenged by an out queen, albeit one that's a bit ultra far right, who blogs under the name Gay Patriot.  Given the craziness of the South Carolina electorate who knows how it will all shake out.  Here are excerpts from The New Civil Rights Movement:

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham may get a primary challenge from a gay GOProud Tea Party activist. Bruce Carroll, who writes the little-read blog, GayPatriot, and is known on Twitter by that name, announced today he is resigning from GOProud, where he says he was just elected Vice Chairman, to supposedly consider running for the U.S. Senate as a challenger to the two-term junior Senator from South Carolina.

“Over the next few weeks, I will be studying the resources, time and effort it would take to do my part in holding Lindsey Graham accountable for his voting record and his attitude toward the voters in South Carolina,” Carroll writes at GayPatriot, adding: This is important: I do not make major decisions hastily; I will take adequate time to realistically look at all of the evidence (pro and con) and consult with a diverse group of people that I trust and that also have the best interests of South Carolina at heart as I do. 

Carroll’s article was posted at 10:30 AM ET today. A look at his Twitter account (image, above) at about 11:00 AM today shows his bio reads:

America’s leading gay conservative voice. Snarky & controversial. Love my country, my dogs & country music. The next junior Senator from SC.

The GOP's Growing Civil War Over Gay Marriage

Former and active-duty Navy sailors gather before the Gay Pride Parade on July 16, 2011, in San Diego

Few things symbolize the struggle for the soul - a virtual civil war, if you will - of the Republican Party in terms of accepting modernity and reforming itself to recognize a changing society and demographics than the the issue of gay marriage.  Yesterday's filing of a brief arguing that there is a federal constitutional right to gay marriage by roughly 80 prominent Republicans and conservatives will likely mark a new line in the sand between the competing forces within the GOP and can be expected to cause the religious extremists who were foolishly allowed to infiltrate and take over the party grassroots (which is certainly what happened in Virginia) go utterly berserk.  Nothing threatens the house of cards belief system of these people more that the prospect that the Bible doesn't condemn homosexuality and that being gay is a normal aspect of humanity for some of us.  (In truth, they should be more worried that Adam and Eve did not exist as historical figures since it undercuts the entire salvation story line).  A piece in the National Journal looks at the struggle.  Here are excerpts:

As Republicans rebound from the 2012 election and plot their future, an uncomfortable debate over gay rights is taking place.

Some party leaders are promoting a more inclusive approach to help the GOP modernize its image and reach across the generational divide. Polls show a narrow majority of Americans--and an overwhelming number of young people--think same-sex couples should have the right to marry. “The marketplace of ideas will render us irrelevant, and soon, if we are not honest about our time and place in history,” wrote former Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman last week in declaring his support for gay marriage.

The marriage debate is expected to reach fever pitch next month when the Supreme Court hears opening arguments in challenges to the federal Defense of Marriage Act and California’s Proposition 8 outlawing gay marriage. The massive publicity surrounding these court cases will make it difficult for Republican politicians who want to keep their distance from the debate while offering others a chance to proclaim the party's support for traditional marriage.

Gay marriage opponents warn of consequences if Republicans retreat from championing traditional marriage.  “I don’t think that’s a constructive attitude to take because Republican officials cannot win without social conservatives,” said Peter Sprigg, a senior fellow for policy studies at the Family Research Council. “They are the core base of the Republican Party and the most active volunteers, and it would make no sense to turn their backs on them.” 

Opponents of gay marriage are planning a “March for Marriage” in Washington, D.C., on March 26. The speaker’s lineup has not yet been released. “The fight for marriage is absolutely not over. It’s going strong,” said Thomas Peters, a spokesman for the National Organization for Marriage. “The idea that there’s a consensus on overthrowing marriage is absurd.”

Still, the momentum appears to be on the side of gay right supporters, who won four ballot initiatives in 2012 and are eying marriage equality laws in Illinois, Rhode Island, Delaware and Hawaii. Efforts to repeal gay marriage bans are underway in Oregon, New Jersey and Ohio. Barack Obama became the first president to invoke gay rights in an inaugural speech last month.

Still, gay Republicans feel excluded from most conservative corners, including the high-profile CPAC conference last month that will showcase likely presidential contenders and other rising stars in the party.   .  .  .  .  “If people are concerned about the future of the conservative movement, they know we need to broaden our appeal,” said the group’s executive director Jimmy LaSalvia. “They need to deal with the political reality of this issue, and beating the drum against gay marriage is a political loser.”

LaSalvia's mistake is that he talks as if the Christofascists were logical and reasonable.  They are not and I do not see them leaving the alternate universe bubble to embrace objective reality much less gay marriage.  Instead, I suspect we will see growing hysteria and attacks on Republicans who try to move the GOP into the 21st century.

CMI Poll: 90% of Gays & Lesbians Vote for Barack Obama

A new Community Marketing Inc. poll indicates that LGBT Americans voted for Barack Obama at perhaps the highest rate ever received by a presidential candidate.  Not, of course, that Mitt Romney and the GOP party platform hadn't given a huge incentive to do so.  Here are some of the poll findings:

The Community Marketing & Insights (CMI) pre-election poll showed that 90% of gay men and lesbians voted for Barack Obama. . . . . LGBTs represent an estimated 5% of United States voters and an overwhelming majority supported the coalition that produced Barack Obama’s victory.

90% support for Obama was seen in all Battleground States. The LGBT percentage was just below the level that Obama received from the African American community.

Demonstrating the importance of the election, 95% of LGBTs indicated that they would vote in the election and 41% indicated that the had already voted before election day.

Final data indicated that 90% supported Barack Obama, 6% for Mitt Romney and 4% a third party candidate.   41% of gays and lesbians gave money to the Obama campaign.

 Given the closeness of some of the results, LGBT voters clearly were important to Obama's victory.  These finding also ought to show GOProud and the Log Cabin Republicans that their organizations are increasingly a joke in the face of the radical anti-gay agenda of today's Republican party.