• CPAC,  Focus on the Family,  GOProud

    Focus on the Family to Pull Out of CPAC?

    Well, not this year. But, in the future?

    Gay group causing Focus to question sponsorship role in conference

    Focus on the Family and other conservative ministries are boycotting or questioning their commitment to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C., next month because a gay advocacy group is cosponsoring the event.

    Tom Minnery, senior vice president of the Focus lobbying arm CitizenLink, said Tuesday that the February event could be the last time the Colorado Springs-based ministry is a CPAC sponsor.

    CitizenLink is participating this year in part to offset GOProud’s presence at CPAC, Minnery said.

    “When you don’t have the influence of organizations like ours,” Minnery said, “you end up with influences from organizations like GOProud.”

    Over the years, CPAC has become the largest conservative political action rally in America, attended each year by thousands of Republican politicians and conservative Christian leaders. Among scheduled speakers this year are Republican powerhouses Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich and author Ann Coulter.

    GOProud formed in 2008 in Washington, D.C., to give gay Republicans a political voice. Its 2,000 members favor conservative causes such as smaller government, fiscal restraint and gun ownership, GOProud founder and president Jerry LaSalvia said.

    But it also strays from Republican orthodoxy by promoting gay marriage and praising the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in the U.S. military.

    It’s those exceptions that rankle some conservatives.

    I suspect that social conservative organizations will not participate in ANY events where GOProud is a sponsor. Their interests are incompatible and there is no reason for Focus, Citizen Link, et. al. to associate with them in a private, sponsored conference.

    Dialogue is one thing but inimicable political interests are quite another.