GOProud, Log Cabin Republicans Won't Participate In CPAC This Year
GOProud, Log Cabin Republicans Won't Participate In CPAC This Year
WASHINGTON -- Though the Republican Party's stance on same-sex marriage faced criticism from within its own ranks following the 2012 election, this year's session of the top conservative gabfest will not include the two leading conservative gay rights groups.
GOProud and the Log Cabin Republicans will not be participating in the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, top executives from both groups confirmed on Wednesday.
"We were kicked out last year and nothing has changed and we wont be at CPAC," GOProud's Jimmy LaSalvia said in an interview. "The last communication I've had from them is that we were kicked out. Nothing has changed."
"At the present time, we have no plans to participate in CPAC this year," Log Cabin Republicans spokesman West Honeycutt told The Huffington Post.
The absence of both groups from this year's CPAC schedule surprised some political observers, who argued that it seemed like the last vestige of the culture war currently winding down within the Republican Party. Outside of social conservative circles, fewer and fewer Republican strategists see future electoral success in an anti-gay marriage agenda. Even former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who once compared same-sex marriage to paganism, has argued that public opinion on the topic is inevitably moving in the direction of greater tolerance.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/20/goproud-cpac-2013-log-cabin-republicans_n_2728104.html