Supporters Of Gay Marriage, DADT Repeal To Be Banned From CPAC

The social conservatives seems to have won the battle over CPAC.

Doug Mataconis · · 41 comments

The new head of the American Conservative Union spoke on C-SPAN earlier today and essentially threw GOProud and other groups who may support gay marriage or oppose Don’t Ask Don’t Tell under the bus:

If you are a group — and this has got nothing to do with your orientation — if you are a group of straight couples, and you advocate gay marriage, that’s not within the scope of what we believe the three legs of the stool of the movement are. So it’s got nothing to do with your orientation. It’s got to do with the principles you advocate. There are a number of gays in America who don’t advocate gays in the military or gay marriage. They’ll fit within the tent.

This ban apparently only applies to sponsorship and wouldn’t bar someone who takes these positions from speaking at the conference. As Dave Weigel notes, this is a good thing because, if it did, it would mean that Dick Cheney, Pat Toomey, and Ron Paul, among others, wouldn’t be allowed to participate.

So, apparently, hatred of gay people is fine but advocating that they be treated equally is not. Pretty sad actually.

Here’s video of the C-Span interview:

Update: GOProud’s Christopher Barron responds:

Repeal of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy has been authorized by Congress and is expected to be implemented by the end of 2011. Same-sex marriage thus remains the major salient issue in Cardenas’ statement. GOProud does not support action to legalize same-sex marriage at the federal level, saying the issue is for states to decide. GOProud Chairman Christopher Barron told TheDC, “We have been told by multiple sources on the ACU board that no decision has been made about GOProud and CPAC 2012.” “If there is a vetting process that looks at the policy positions held by the participating organizations then GOProud will clearly be back as a sponsor next year,” said Barron. Barron said that his organization’s legislative agenda “makes it clear that we are not just a kinda conservative organization we are a *very* conservative organization.”

The group does support repealing DOMA, though, and for many social conservatives that seems to be enough to disqualify you.