For as long as I have been out and amongst gay Republicans, I have heard my partisan and philosophical peers clamoring for a conservative alternative to HRC and the other left-leaning gay groups based in our nation’s capital.
These iconoclastic gays were concerned that Log Cabin had become too cozy with these groups. Many left the organization in the 1990s and stayed further away in the early to mid-2000s when the national board seemed more interested in securing the favor of the gay establishment than in standing for conservative principles.
This tension — between a Log Cabin board hesitant to distinguish itself from HRC et al. and (most) rank-and-file gay conservatives — came to a head in 2009 when Chris Barron laid the groundwork for GOProud. Perhaps because of the success of this fledgling organization in attracting media attention (and financial support), Log Cabin, under Executive Director R. Clarke Cooper, started sounding increasingly Republican.
Gay conservatives and Republicans benefit wit two vibrant right-of-center gay organizations providing a free-market alternative to the various “equality” groups.
Instead, however, of allowing the tension between the two groups serve to spur each to promote more aggressively conservative ideas and demonstrate how such ideas benefit gay people, the national leadership of Log Cabin is ostracizing one of its chapters, ostensibly because the group invited GOProud’s leadership to its annual dinner:
Saying that the leadership of Log Cabin Republicans of Dallas, especially longtime chapter president Rob Schlein, have “engaged in a consistent pattern of behavior that detracts from the mission of our organization,” national Log Cabin Executive Director R. Clarke Cooper announced this week that the previous Dallas chapter has been de-chartered, and a new chapter created.
. . . .
Schlein said he believes “the Dallas chapter was kicked out after inviting [GOProud co-founders] Chris Barron and Jimmy LaSalvia to speak at our [upcoming] Grand Old Party.
Guess inclusion just don’t win when it comes to Log Cabin’s internal affairs.
Well that was stupid. I may not care much for GOProud but LCR shouldn’t be shy about working with them when it is warranted, or listening to them speak. The same applies to GOProud I’d say as well. Were I involved in either group it certainly wouldn’t bother me. I guess there is still some bitterness over the split from a couple of years ago and some in GOProud were rather nasty about it, although it wouldn’t surprise me if some in LCR were just as bad. Kind of reminds one of kindergarten at times…
after doing the google search on GOPROUD and LCR came back to Bruce’s announcement. . .of GOPROUD and this
Ben Smith at the Politico has the scoop on our new gay conservative group:
A dissident faction of gay conservatives is launching a rival group to the traditional voice of gay Republicans, the Log Cabin Republicans.
GOPROUD, the new 527 group, will launch next week, according to a media advisory. The contact given for the group is Christopher Barron, a former Log Cabin political director who broke with the group.
“Essentially, there’s no voice for gay Republicans or gay conservatives in particular in D.C. right now. Log Cabin has been completely and totally absent here in D.C. for months and months,” Barron said.   “It has simply moved way too far from the left and is basically indistinguishable from any other gay left organization.”
The ideological battle has been playing out in the gay media and on some blogs for a while, spurred in part by the Blade’s revelation that the Log Cabin Republicans’ biggest backer is a prominent Democrat, Tim Gill. Their complaint, in general, is that Log Cabin has grown indistinguishable from left-leaning gay rights groups.
The blog GayPatriot has been making the case for a split, and arguing that gay rights groups should make the case for same-sex marriage to a broader political spectrum.
Interesting. . .make the case for SSM
But back to GOPROUD and LCR. . .pissing match over loyalty, fundraising and power plus echoing John’s comment. Probably isn’t a pretty sight to see or hear the bitchiness from Jimmy and Chris toward Cooper.
“Pathetic” sprung to my mind.
You would think that the LCR would welcome all the help it could muster when dealing with the GOP hierarchy and the Voting-Public.
Typical behavior by the Log Cabin Republicrats. I attended several chapter meetings, and virtually all the time was spent bashing GOP officials with nary a word about electing Republicans over Democrats. Someone actually dared to speak the Democratic candidate in a national election, and it reminded me that we were supposed to be with the GOP. After years and years of putdowns by the LCRs, they have every right to be afraid of the actual conservatism GOProud espouses.
Seems like there is another side to this story down in the Dallas.
http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2011/10/14/Texas_Showdown_Log_Cabin_Versus_Its_Former_Dallas_President/
Rusty, this is what my take on the article was. Mr. Schlein apparently stated in his interview with Signorile that if he wanted to fire a Black person, he would make up another reason to fire him. My sense was that he personally does not advocate that, but was trying to explain one of the reasons why he is against anti-discrimination laws at the workplace. And I also don’t think that it was because he invited GOProud to one of their dinners. It seems there is more to this story.
Pat, I agree there is more to this story.
I also would be curious as to what the compensation package looked like for Jimmy and Chris and where exactly did the money come from . . .
And like Chris Barron, Mr Schlien has supposedly been ‘out there with his editorials’.
Pat: That’s the sense I got as well. I didn’t see his comments as being racist but instead expressing a more libertarian viewpoint on dscrimination laws. Personally I think these laws are still needed but this is a philisophical difference which he expressed and not a racist one. I took from his comments that any employer should be able to fire any employee for any reason whatsoever. They already can and do, they just have to careful about it. I’m leery about bringing it all out into the open being mindful of failings in our history, but it does have an advantage of at least giving folks a chance to know what prejudices various companies may have and steer clear of them. Besides, are people really that stupid to think that if an employer is racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-Christian/other religion or lack thereof, etc. that they cannot and will not find some other “official” reason to let someone go? Proving discrimination isn’t as easy as people might think. It’s really not that difficult to fire someone based on discriminatory reasons and I’ve seen it happen.
From that article, rusty, it seems that Log Cabin de-chartered the Dallas chapter because it didn’t toe the national line on ENDA, a law which, while well-intentioned, is a statist solution to an increasingly diminishing problem.
Too bad that Cooper doesn’t want clubs to offer a libertarian viewpoint and prefers the abstract notion of “equality’ to the concrete ideal of liberty.