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Ann Coulter to speak at Homocon, and WND isn't happy (Bizarro world much?)

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Gaborn

Member
There's been some confusion about this event next month called Homocon, sponsored by GOProud, which bills itself as a Republican and conservative "gay" group.

At first glance, the group's platform may have some appeal to conservatives – and I have no doubt that some of the group's members actually vote Republican.

"GOProud represents gay conservatives and their allies," claims a mission statement on the group's website. "GOProud is committed to a traditional conservative agenda that emphasizes limited government, individual liberty, free markets and a confident foreign policy. GOProud promotes our traditional conservative agenda by influencing politics and policy at the federal level."

But, to be sure, this group is a camel trying to get its nose under the tent of a movement it perceives as a threat to the radical homosexual agenda that includes same-sex marriage and open homosexuals serving in the U.S. military, among other things.

Exhibit A in my case is this quote from the chairman of the board of GOProud, Christopher Barron, from a Twitter posting of 4:04 p.m. Aug. 4, just before announcing his big coup – the signing of a speaking contract with conservative superstar Ann Coulter at his Homocon event in September: "We are a gay organization, we only work on gay issues, we have never claimed otherwise. My God people."

Some conservatives have tried to explain Coulter's appearance at Homocon as part of the old Ronald Reagan philosophy – the so-called 80-20 rule: If you agree with someone 80 percent of the time and disagree 20 percent, then he's your political ally. Maybe so.

But let's evaluate the GOProud agenda through the prism of Reagan's 80-20 rule.

Let's call this Exhibit B in my case against GOProud.

Here is GOProud's list of federal legislative priorities. The preamble states: "The so-called 'gay agenda' is defined by the left through a narrow prism of legislative goals. While hate crimes and employment protections may be worthy goals, there are many other important priorities that receive little attention from the gay community. GOProud's agenda emphasizes conservative and libertarian principles that will improve the daily lives of all Americans, but especially gay and lesbian Americans."

Note that the leftist calls for hate-crimes laws that have been used to squelch freedom of speech and religion and special employment protections for homosexuals, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendereds are "worthy goals." GOProud adopts the leftist homosexual agenda and actually expands it.

Here is GOProud's 10-point "conservative agenda":

TAX REFORM - Death tax repeal; domestic partner tax equity, and other changes to the tax code that will provide equity for gays and lesbians; cut in the capital gains and corporate tax rates to jump start our economy and create jobs; a fairer, flatter and substantially simpler tax code.

HEALTH-CARE REFORM – Free market health-care reform. Legislation that will allow for the purchase of insurance across state lines – expanding access to domestic partner benefits; emphasizing individual ownership of health-care insurance – such a shift would prevent discriminatory practices by an employer or the government.

SOCIAL SECURITY REFORM - Bringing basic fairness to the Social Security system through the creation of inheritable personal savings accounts.

DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL REPEAL – Repeal of the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy.

HOLDING THE LINE ON SPENDING – Standing up for all taxpayers against wasteful and unneccessary (sic) spending to protect future generations from the mounting federal debt.

FIGHTING GLOBAL EXTREMISTS – Standing strong against radical regimes who seek to criminalize gays and lesbians.

DEFENDING OUR CONSTITUTION – Opposing any anti-gay federal marriage amendment.

ENCOURAGING COMMUNITY ENTREPRENEURSHIP – Package of free market reforms to encourage and support small businesses and entrepreneurship in the gay community.

REVITALIZING OUR COMMUNITIES – A package of urban-related reforms; expanding historic tax preservation credits; support for school choice.

DEFENDING OUR COMMUNITY – Protecting Second Amendment rights.

Notice that only four of the 10 priorities represent standard conservative positions – Nos. 3, 5, 9 and 10. But even some of those seem to be motivated more by self-interest than the general welfare.

That leaves us with six priorities that are antithetical to most conservatives:

The kind of tax reform GOProud wants demands "domestic partner tax equity."

The kind of health-care reform GOProud wants demands expansion of benefits to "domestic partners."

GOProud wants open homosexuality flaunted in our military ranks.

GOProud wants the U.S. standing up to extremists around the world not because they threaten the U.S. or oppress their own populations, but when they don't legalize sodomy.

Defending the Constitution in the eyes of GOProud means fighting for same-sex marriage.

Encouraging community entrepreneurship means the federal government handing out perks to people based on their sexual proclivities.

So how's that 80-20 rule apply? Not very well – unless you're really talking about a 20-80 rule.

This represents GOProud's public expression of its "conservative" agenda – in other words, its very best face.

Some conservatives have bought into the deception that GOProud is taking the conservative agenda to the homosexual world. In fact, GOProud's agenda is actually a transparent program to take the homosexual agenda inside the conservative tent.

Well, maybe it's not transparent enough. The organizers of the Conservative Political Action Conference, the biggest annual gathering of conservatives, has fallen for it.

Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform, who sits on GOProud's board, has fallen for it.

And now Ann Coulter, conservative icon, has fallen for it.

Who will be next?

Have conservatives learned nothing about insidious attempts to subvert movements for self-government, the rule of law and the will of the people from within?

To quote Christopher Barron: "My God people!"

Story here

Now, let me say this clearly. WND are nutjobs. Ann Coulter is the EMPRESS of nutjobs. Is it just me or is it bizarre that Coulter could be taking a moderate position on anything?
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
Gaborn said:
Now, let me say this clearly. WND are nutjobs. Ann Coulter is the EMPRESS of nutjobs. Is it just me or is it bizarre that Coulter could be taking a moderate position on anything?
Oh man, this is going to be fun.


Defending the Constitution in the eyes of GOProud means fighting for same-sex marriage.

....ugh
 

Gaborn

Member
Alucrid said:
Homocon is just an awful name.

You think THAT's awful?

Look at the PAGE for Homocon

Ann-Coulter.jpg
 

MetatronM

Unconfirmed Member
"PEOPLE WHO DON'T HAVE EXACTLY THE SAME PERSPECTIVE ON ALL THE ISSUES CAN'T POSSIBLY ACTUALLY BE IN THE SAME PARTY AS ME! RAAAARGGHHH!"
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
I mean, I can respect what they're trying to do, show that not all gay people are ultra-leftist flamboyant hippies. But this is....um...
 

FoneBone

Member
GOProud is basically a troll group -- they have no interest in actually advancing gay rights, they just exist to piss off liberals and the "gay establishment"

EDIT: They're a bunch of "fuck you, I've got mine" gays who founded their own group because they felt the Log Cabin Republicans were too liberal
 

Gaborn

Member
FoneBone said:
GOProud is basically a troll group -- they have no interest in actually advancing gay rights, they just exist to piss off liberals and the "gay establishment"

EDIT: They're a bunch of "fuck you, I've got mine" gays who founded their own group because they felt the Log Cabin Republicans were too liberal

In what way would you say that? I don't get that impression at ALL from what I can see. They seem pretty clear on their support for marriage equality and ending DADT and equality under the law.

Edit: Funnily enough if they "just" exist to "piss off liberals and the 'gay establishment'" (whatever the hell you want THAT to mean) they certainly went about it the wrong way by sponsoring CPAC and causing several conservative groups to protest.
 

FoneBone

Member
I know what their platform is, they haven't done jack-shit.

This is their idea of a principled stance

Edit: I would also wager that I'm quite a bit more familiar with them than you, given that this is weeks-old news and that you don't appear to have been paying much attention to the group
 

Gaborn

Member
FoneBone said:
I know what their platform is, they haven't done jack-shit.

This is their idea of a principled stance

Meh, I don't honestly care about individuals personal opinions like that, it's not every single employees fault that a particular person supported the bigoted prop 8. I certainly don't have a problem with boycotts either, I doubt they'll be particularly effective long term but I don't honestly feel strongly about Manchester either way.


Edit: I would also wager that I'm quite a bit more familiar with them than you, given that this is weeks-old news and that you don't appear to have been paying much attention to the group

Well, yes and no. Ann Coulter at Homocon is weeks old, the ridiculously insane WND editorial is from yesterday. I admit i haven't followed GOProud particularly closely though, but I have enough to know they're basically gay conservatives that have organized less than a year and a half ago. They're new, but they've already done one very valuable thing, they've put a fresh visible face out there for gay conservatives. There's no reason that the Log Cabin Republicans should be the lone prominent gay conservative group.
 
FoneBone said:
GOProud is basically a troll group -- they have no interest in actually advancing gay rights, they just exist to piss off liberals and the "gay establishment"

EDIT: They're a bunch of "fuck you, I've got mine" gays who founded their own group because they felt the Log Cabin Republicans were too liberal

This is mostly true, but I also think that (whether intentionally or otherwise) GOProud has been more effective at driving a wedge into the GOP than the LCR ever was. The Coulter and CPAC incidents will accomplish next to nothing when it comes to actually making the GOP more pro-gay, but at least they've resulted in some entertaining infighting. :lol

BTW, "Our gays are more macho than their straights" is kind of offensive on at least two levels, but that's probably taking it more seriously than it deserves to be taken.
 

LosDaddie

Banned
Father_Brain said:
BTW, "Our gays are more macho than their straights" is kind of offensive on at least two levels, but that's probably taking it more seriously than it deserves to be taken.

That line is just typical, cunty A.Coulter trolling of male Dems. It's her schtik.
 
I won't argue that GOProud is a legit group (I'm not gay, so I don't follow these sorts of things), but I always enjoy seeing factions in both parties that try to buck the status quo. It's encouraging.
 

FoneBone

Member
Father_Brain said:
"Our gays are more macho than their straights"
And I'll add that peddling this sort of line, along with inviting a hateful, anti-gay troll like Coulter to speak -- not to mention their conference's emphasis on "fun", as opposed to anything resembling an actual agenda -- speaks for itself
 

FoneBone

Member
Troll trolls at convention of trolls, news at eleven
Ann Coulter doesn't mince words. And even when speaking to a gay conservative organization, GOProud, at their inaugural Homocon party on Saturday night, she apparently wasn't willing to start.

After a series of jokes about conservative that sounded -- and were received -- more like a stand-up act then a political speech, Coulter told the assembled (and predominantly wealthy) conservative gay crowd why they should oppose same sex marriage, adding, "I should warn you: I've never failed to talk gays out of gay marriage."

And then she did.

First, she ran down the stereotypical stand-up comedian's list of reasons, including that lacking the legal right to marriage allows the less-committed partner to weasel out of it. But in a more serious note, she parroted the losing arguments of the lawyers supporting California's Prop 8 and told the crowd that the reason she opposes (and they should oppose) same sex marriage is that it is strictly for procreation.

In one of a series of racially insensitive remarks that pervaded her speech, Coulter added, "Marriage is not a civil right. You're not black." It was part of a larger argument on which she later elaborated, telling the crowd that the 14th Amendment only applies to African-Americans and that it does not, in fact, apply to women, LGBT people or other minorities.
...

Several attendees, who requested anonymity, were also startled by her racially-tinged humor: in addition to her comments about civil rights, she also accused single parents of breeding muggers and blamed the decline in marriage in the African-American community on welfare, "the subsidization of single parenting" and overly liberal child support laws. ...

GOProud's executive director, Jimmy LaSalvia, told TPM after the speech, "I don't agree with Ann Coulter about gay marriage, but there was a real conversation here. That's what we're trying to start." He added, "We want people to see that it isn't 'us versus them.'" As an organization, he explained, GOProud focuses strictly on federal issues which means that, institutionally, they don't take a position on state policy issues like same sex marriage. Unlike the Log Cabin Republicans who exist, according to LaSalvia, to push from many of the same agenda items as the "gay left," GOProud seeks to redefine what are "gay" issues and push for issues of the largest importance to the LGBT community.

Pressed to discuss what specific issues GOProud supports, LaSalvia pointed to their work with Sen. John Thune (R-SD) on a failed amendment to last year's federal hate crimes bill that would have allowed gun owners to carry concealed weapons over state lines and their work with Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) on what he termed a "free market alternative" to the health care reform legislation that GOProud thought would be more beneficial to LGBT people...

Nonetheless, most attendees -- including host (and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel) -- cited economic issues as the ones most near and dear to their hearts. Theil told TPM that he supported GOProud because, "It's all the economy. There's no plan for the future, no plan for growth," by the current Administration. Thiel, known more as a libertarian than a Republican, typified the attendees at the event, all of whom cited their fiscal conservatism as the reason for their involvement in the gay conservative movement.

As multiple people told TPM, it was nice to be in a group of other gay conservatives for once. One woman, who requested anonymity said, "I'm not out at work, but I know I could never tell anyone I was a Republican."
 
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