Every year, the annual Conservative Political Action Conference is a hot bed of antigay ranting. CPAC 2011 was no exception, despite the fact that GOProud, a gay Republican organization that thinks the Log Cabin Republicans are crazy lefties, was welcomed with open arms.
Kidding. GOProud was not exactly welcomed, but they were there anyway and were even CPAC sponsors. This caused a right-wing shit storm of homo-induced hysteria.
For one thing, Vision America, Pastor Rick Scarborough’s organization that seeks to erase the separation between church and state, boycotted CPAC.
According to the Vision America website, one of its founding principles is “Personal Decency and Moral Integrity.” They believe that “God established human sexuality for the physical expression of love and commitment between a man and a woman in holy marriage. Apart from that divine intent, sexual activity becomes nothing more or less than the selfish manipulation of another human being for personal satisfaction or financial gain.”
So I guess it’s really not a surprise that gays at CPAC would totally freak them out, since they think gays are pretty much sex-maniac perverts against God.
Vision America even took out a full-page ad in the Washington Times that reads, “CPAC is betraying conservative principles and threatening conservative unity by creating the false impression that gay activism is somehow compatible with conservatism.”
Which begs the question, if gay conservatives don’t exist, then is GOProud pretend? Or just delusional?
The ad continues, “The self-proclaimed gay Republicans support hate crime laws (which will be used to bludgeon the church) and oppose the Federal Defense of Marriage Amendment, without which judges will ultimately legislate homosexual ‘marriage’ — making the natural family an endangered species.”
That’s right. If gay people get married, then families headed by heteros will start to die off. Because gays will destroy their habitat. And eat all of their food. And kill all of their babies. That’s just how gays roll.
The ad features a photo of Ronald Reagan looking really sad. The message is that today’s CPAC makes him cry, or it would if he were still alive. There’s also this Reagan quote: “Without God, there is no virtue, because there is no prompting of the conscience … And without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure.”
Underlying message: True conservatives don’t mingle with gays because gays are godless and are destroying democracy.
“Ask yourself: Would CPAC allow participation by the Democratic Socialists of America? Why is the free market an inviolable conservative principle, but not family values?” the ad asks. “Why does it profit us to gain tax cuts and lose the family — the foundation of a free society?”
Oh, I get it. This is like sibling rivalry. Who does Daddy Conservatism love best, Baby Money or Baby Morality? Well, guess what? You don’t need morality to make money. If anything, capitalism seems to demonstrate that morality actually works against you. And Baby Morality is just so self-righteous, always into everybody else’s business. And I think we’ve seen enough conservatives embroiled in sex scandals, gay and straight, to prove that “family values” only matters when it works to get votes.
Antigay organizations like Family Research Council, Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, Liberty Counsel and American Family Association followed Vision America’s lead, boycotting CPAC all because GOProud was there. Ain’t no way they were going to share a conference center with a bunch of queers.
FRC’s Tony Perkins explained that the reason his group was boycotting the conference was because homos are clearly trying to destroy conservatism.
“Any group that purports to be conservative should not attempt to destroy the foundations of conservatism itself, and we will not aid and abet such groups by partnering with them,” he continues.
In other words, attending CPAC is akin to giving comfort to the enemy. And to Vision America and all of the other CPAC boycotters, homos are always the enemy. Maybe they’re finally realizing that it’s a losing battle.
D’Anne Witkowski has been gay for pay since 2003. She’s a freelance writer and poet (believe it!). When she’s not taking on the creeps of the world, she reviews rock ’n’ roll shows in Detroit with her twin sister.