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MassResistance joins American Family Assoc, Liberty Counsel and others denouncing CPAC for partnering with homosexual group -- in full-page ad in Washington Times

Boycott of CPAC over homosexual group fuels battle over values

POSTED: Feb 14, 2010

The 2011 Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC, was held this past weekend in Washington DC, and reportedly had over 11,000 attendees from around the country. But as they did last last year, they included a homosexual activist group, GOProud, as a major participant. This year, pro-family groups reacted very publicly.

Full-page ad in Washington Times Last Monday MassResistance joined with the American Family Association, Liberty Counsel, Traditional Values Association, WorldNetDaily, Americans for Truth, Vision America, and other pro-family groups as signers in a full-page ad in this past Monday's Washington Times newspaper. The ad, titled "What would Ronald Reagan think of CPAC today?" denounced CPAC for embracing the homosexual group and for abandoning a core conservative tenet. "CPAC is betraying conservative principles and threatening conservative unity by creating the false impression that gay activism is somehow compatible with conservatism," it says. Read PDF version of ad HERE

Public boycott of CPAC by major pro-family groups

Last year just a handful of pro-family groups opposed the inclusion of GOProud, sent letters of protest, and declined to be co-sponsors. American Family Assoc. wrote that "groups that promote the normalization of homosexual behavior should be resisted without reserve or compromise by any genuinely conservative organization." And Young Americans for Freedom activist Ryan Sorba gave a hard-hitting speech against GOProud in the 2010 the CPAC conference.

But this year, the heart of the pro-family movement got involved and an official boycott of CPAC took place. Besides the signers of the Washington Times ad, the boycott included: Concerned Women for America, Family Research Council, Heritage Foundation, National Organization for Marriage, Media Research Center, American Principles Project, and others. Also, U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), and Gov. Mike Huckabbee joined the boycott and declined to attend.

A number of conservatives wrote articles supporting the boycott, some in very strong terms!

Don Feder: "Gays, Grover And Islamists - CPAC, It's Not Your Ronnie's Conservative Conference"

Red State - Erick Erickson: "This is Too Much For Me"

Floyd Brown: "Gay 'Conservative' Group Tears Conservatism Apart"

American Principles Project: "An open Letter to CPAC attendees and presenters."

Americans for Truth: "Ad Charges CPAC Betrays Conservative Principles and Threatens Conservative Unity"

TFP.org: "TFP to CPAC: Don't Betray Principles"

GOProud's classic Saul Alinsky tactics

GOProud publicly claims on its website to be a "committed to a traditional conservative agenda". And at CPAC they talk about free markets and free enterprise.

But in fact, GOProud's actual agenda - revealed through its writings, actions, and lobbying efforts -- includes:

• Homosexualizing the military by repealing "Don't ask don't tell"
• Legalization of homosexual "marriage"
• Support of hate crimes legislation including ENDA, the federal "Employment Non-Discrimination Act" that targets criticism of homosexuality and transgenderism in the workplace.
• Repeal of federal "Defense of Marriage Act"
• Having America's foreign policy support homosexuality abroad: America should: "Stand strong against radical regimes" that don't legalize sodomy and other homosexual behavior.
• Special federal pro-gay legislation, including "Package of free market reforms to encourage and support small businesses and entrepreneurship in the gay community."

In addition, in their writings and some of their interviews they've begun to demonize pro-family groups which do not support the homosexual agenda as bigots and haters.  But their "public" face is always limited government and fiscal conservatism.

From a strategic standpoint, this is the classic Saul Alinsky approach: Work within the system. Try to appear as moderate as possible on the surface. Slowly but surely introduce radical "change" framed in progressive, reasonable, and rational terms. This is what they've been doing in schools and government (and many other places) for a long time. And many on our side continue to fall for it.

Unfortunately, most politicians and groups ignored the boycott

Despite the outrage over GOProud and its homosexual agenda, just about all the big-name Republicans and lots of "conservative" groups, even pro-family groups, ignored the boycott and participated, and even sponsored this year's CPAC. Tim Pawlenty, Michele Bachmann, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Haley Barbour, Newt Gingrich, and many, many more Republican heavyweights participated. Sarah Palin did not attend CPAC but publicly said that she has no problem with GOProud or any gay Republican group.

The list of pro-family and conservative groups and activists who participated is so embarrassing that we're not going to list them - but you can look at the schedule and lists of sponsors and participants to see for yourself.

CPAC 2011 - Conference Agenda

CPAC 2011 - List of Sponsors

CPAC 2011 - List of Participating Organizations

It's very depressing. But this clearly separates the wheat from the chaff in this struggle.

It also shows that CPAC is basically becoming a conference that caters to libertarians and establishment Republicans -- people who don't think that morality is important in a free society, or that the sexual-radical agenda presents any particular danger. We've seen that ourselves when we attended in CPAC the past.

A lot of groups have decided to shift to the Values Voters Summit, the pro-family version of CPAC also held annually in Washington DC, which has gotten bigger every year. We've been to it and it's definitely better.

Boycott barely covered in mainstream media

To no one's surprise, the mainstream media -- including even Fox News -- largely ignored this controversy. Their general position these days is that those who challenge the homosexual movement are "fringe" and barely worth mentioning. But there were several exceptions this time. Surprisingly, the Huffington Post had the most balanced coverage we've seen from them ever.

Los Angeles Times: "Some right-wing groups to skip GOP event"

Washington Times: "CPAC attendance raises gay issue"

Huffington Post: "Social Conservatives Desert CPAC Over Invite Of Gay GOP Group"

Politico: "A conservative civil war over the Conservative Political Action Conference"

WorldNetDaily: "'Huge blow to CPAC': More big guns say bye"

New CPAC leader hints at dumping GOProud next year

The good news is that CPAC may have gotten the message. This past week David Keene, the long-time head of CPAC, stepped down amidst a financial scandal in the organization. As the Huffington Post reports:

We'd go a step further. Don't prove Saul Alinsky right, again. The homosexual agenda is poisonous to the conservative movement and to America. Get away from them now.

Message to CPAC from The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property (tfp.org).

 

IMPORTANT NOTE: As we go to press we've received an email from WorldNetDaily editor Joseph Farah that the GOPAC Board has just voted GOProud OUT of CPAC for next year!  We have no other information on that right now, but we will cover this further as we find out more.