News
CPAC lifts ban on gay conservative group
No booth allocated, but GOProud will be allowed as a ‘guest’
The GOProud booth at CPAC in 2011. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)
After years of being banned, a group for gay conservatives will once again participate this year in the annual Conservative Political Action Conference — although its involvement will be limited compared to previous years.
As first reported by the National Journal, the American Conservative Union announced on Wednesday that it would allow GOProud to participate in CPAC, which will take place March 6-8 at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Md.
Dan Schneider, the ACU’s executive director, said his organization decided to allow GOProud to return to CPAC following a meeting between the groups last week.
“The directors have a new vision for promoting a broad array of conservative priorities; from sound fiscal policies to strong Second Amendment rights to pro-life policies,” Schneider said. “We welcome GOProud’s attendance at this year’s CPAC conference. I believe their presence could help establish a productive relationship in the future.”
However, GOProud is only set to participate at CPAC as a guest at the event. No booth was allocated to the gay conservative group at the conference.
Ross Hemminger, co-director of GOProud, said his organization didn’t seek a booth at the event and wanted to participate as a guest to rebuild the relationship with the ACU.
“We will have the presence that we wanted there,” Hemminger said. “I’ve been making clear to people, we didn’t ask for a booth, we didn’t ask to co-sponsor, we asked to attend as guests, and the ACU and CPAC have been very willing to work with us to that, and they’ve been wonderful to work with.”
Although GOProud had a booth at CPAC in 2010 and 2011, the organization was barred from participating in 2012 along with the John Birch Society. Although the ACU would later say GOProud was barred for “disrespectful behavior,” GOProud always asserted it was barred from attendance because it identified as a gay group.
It should be noted that GOProud was invited back to CPAC in the first year that the former leaders of the group, Jimmy LaSalvia and Chris Barron, are no longer affiliated with the organization.
But the lifting of the ban on GOProud wasn’t the only news on Wednesday regarding CPAC. New Jersey Governor and possible 2016 Republican presidential contender Chris Christie, who was snubbed at last year’s event, was allowed to have a speaking slot at the event.
One remaining question is whether the Log Cabin Republicans will attend CPAC. Gregory Angelo, Log Cabin’s executive director, said the decision is still up in the air.
“We’re still working out what LCR participation might look like at CPAC,” Angelo said. “Any Log Cabin Republicans presence would need to be meaningful.”
Asked what a meaningful presence would look like, Angelo said, “We’re still ironing that out.”
Iran
Grenell: ‘Real hope’ for gay rights in Iran as result of nationwide protests
Former ambassador to Germany claimed he has sneaked ‘gays and lesbians out of’ country
Richard Grenell, the presidential envoy for special missions of the United States, said on X on Tuesday that he has helped “sneak gays and lesbians out of Iran” and is seeing a change in attitudes in the country.
The post, which now has more than 25,000 likes since its uploading, claims that attitudes toward gays and lesbians are shifting amid massive economic protests across the country.
“For the first time EVER, someone has said ‘I want to wait just a bit,” the former U.S. ambassador to Germany wrote. “There is real hope coming from the inside. I don’t think you can stop this now.”
Grenell has been a longtime supporter of the president.
“Richard Grenell is a fabulous person, A STAR,” Trump posted on Truth Social days before his official appointment to the ambassador role. “He will be someplace, high up! DJT”
Iran, which is experiencing demonstrations across all 31 provinces of the country — including in Tehran, the capital — started as a result of a financial crisis causing the collapse of its national currency. Time magazine credits this uprising after the U.N. re-imposed sanctions in September over the country’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.
As basic necessities like bread, rice, meat, and medical supplies become increasingly unaffordable to the majority of the more than 90 million people living there, citizens took to the streets to push back against Iran’s theocratic regime.
Grenell, who was made president and executive director of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts last year by Trump, believes that people in the majority Shiite Muslim country are also beginning to protest human rights abuses.
Iran is among only a handful of countries in which consensual same-sex sexual relations remain punishable by death, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Virginia
Mark Levine loses race to succeed Adam Ebbin in ‘firehouse’ Democratic primary
State Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker won with 70.6 percent of vote
Gay former Virginia House of Delegates member Mark Levine (D-Alexandria) lost his race to become the Democratic nominee to replace gay state Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria) in a Jan. 13 “firehouse” Democratic primary.
Levine finished in second place in the hastily called primary, receiving 807 votes or 17.4 percent. The winner in the four-candidate race, state Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker, who was endorsed by both Ebbin and Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger received 3,281 votes or 70.6 percent.
Ebbin, whose 39th Senate District includes Alexandria and parts of Arlington and Fairfax Counties, announced on Jan. 7 that he was resigning effective Feb. 18, to take a job in the Spanberger administration as senior advisor at the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority.
Results of the Jan. 13 primary, which was called by Democratic Party leaders in Alexandria, Arlington, and Fairfax, show that candidates Charles Sumpter, a World Wildlife Fund director, finished in third place with 321 voters or 6.9 percent; and Amy Jackson, the former Alexandria vice mayor, finished in fourth place with 238 votes or 5.1 percent.
Bennett-Parker, who LGBTQ community advocates consider a committed LGBTQ ally, will now compete as the Democratic nominee in a Feb. 10 special election in which registered voters in the 39th District of all political parties and independents will select Ebbin’s replacement in the state senate.
The Alexandria publication ALX Now reports that local realtor Julie Robben Linebery has been selected by the Alexandria Republican City Committee to be the GOP candidate to compete in the Jan. 10 special election. According to ALX Now, Lineberry was the only application to run in a now cancelled special party caucus type event initially called to select the GOP nominees.
It couldn’t immediately be determined if an independent or other party candidate planned to run in the special election.
Bennett-Parker is considered the strong favorite to win the Feb. 10 special election in the heavily Democratic 39th District, where Democrat Ebbin has served as senator since 2012.
Congress
Van Hollen speaks at ‘ICE Out for Good’ protest in D.C.
ICE agent killed Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis on Jan. 7
U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) is among those who spoke at an “ICE Out for Good” protest that took place outside U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s headquarters in D.C. on Tuesday.
The protest took place six days after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old woman in Minneapolis.
Good left behind her wife and three children.
(Video by Michael K. Lavers)
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