GOProud Founders Jimmy LaSalvia and Chris Barron Talk Rick Santorum And CPAC Exclusion (VIDEO)

GOProud founders Jimmy LaSalvia and Chris Barron sounded off on their exclusion from this year's CPAC and provided a little insight into their take on the Republican party's potential candidate in a new interview with CNN.

The members of the pro-gay rights conservative organization were dropped from the CPAC bill after the uproar that ensued from their participation in the 2011 convention, HuffPost's Sam Stein reported.

"There were folks… that wanted us barred from CPAC simply because we're gay," LaSalvia told CNN. "And they took advantage of the leadership change at the organization, and were successful in keeping us out this year."

As Towleroad notes, the interview gets particularly interesting when Ashleigh Banfield presses the pair on a quote they made in January: "Any one of the four remaining GOP candidates would be a dramatic improvement over the failed presidency of Barack Obama." Banfield then calls to mind Rick Santorum's ultra-conservative stance on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights.

"Rick Santorum is not going to be the nominee of this party," Barron explains. "I know that the mainstream media and some in the party want to continue the charade that there is a horse race going on here...The bottom line is the only candidate who has a national organization that can win this primary is Mitt Romney.”

Comments

[saganz999]

08:41 PM on 05/02/2012

These are the same guys who tried to organize the Jews For Hitler group.

[Lallanzinho Costa]

06:09 PM on 03/15/2012

I don't get it... How somebody can join a party that hate the very core reality of their beings, denies any status to their relationships/parenthood and label them as an abomination.
In that case i have to agree with Michelle Bachmann words when she said: it's bondage. It is personal bondage, personal despair and personal enslavement.

[practiceempathy]

12:56 PM on 02/13/2012

from GOProud's website:

"What we believe
We are conservatives who believe in limited government, individual liberty, free markets, a strong national defense and a confident foreign policy. We believe that every individual should be equal under the law. Click here to learn about our federal legislative priorities."

But on their home page they say, "Any of the Remaining GOP Presidenti­al Candidates Would Be a Dramatic Improvemen­t over President Barack Obama."

GOProud, take Santorum. He wants to legislate the bedrooms of Americans and you claim he'd be better than Obama in terms of smaller government intrusion in our lives?!?!?

Wake up. Or get some self-respect.

[practiceempathy]

12:54 PM on 02/13/2012

OK, just mind-boggling.

http://www.goproud.org/photos-of-our-office-warming-party/

It's seriously bizarre seeing Dick Cheney's picture on the wall in a room full of gay people who idolize him?

Yeah, I know Cheney's changed his views on gay Americans because of his daughter, but the man is still seriously dangerous and criminal.

Unbelievable delusion.

[Venmaker1]

05:40 PM on 02/12/2012

I see they were sent to the back of the bus. FYI fellas, Mittons will not only send you to the back of the bus but will throw you under it if he thinks it will bring him votes.

I hope tire treads are in for the summer fashion season because you are going to be sporting the look.

[K267]

03:12 PM on 02/12/2012

Aw, come on. Most Repub leaders don't believe the hateful stuff they spew, and these guys know that. The leaders spout the crap to get through primary elections by those whose economic interests they do not share: just look at Romney's extraordinary convoluted and malleable convictions. The fact that homophobic diatribes hurt the 99% (and often the most vulnerable, like teens) makes no nevermind to them because they don't mix with the 99% except at election time, and then as briefly as possible. We are all fodder for their careers.

[montex]

01:50 PM on 02/12/2012

These guys hurt my soul.

[TeraWatt60]

11:28 AM on 02/12/2012

I'm sure Jewish right wingers had the same notions about the N.azis in Germany during the 1930's --- no matter what your thinking on other issues it simply makes absolutely no sense to be gay and Teapublican, unless you get some kind of maso thrill about being h8d by that clusterf of reactionary b.igots

[Rambrewster]

11:30 PM on 02/11/2012

These guys baffle me. They say they're repubs becaue of the party's fiscal policies. Wouldn't it be easier to join the Democrats nan advocate for your fiscal poilcy than try to convince repubs tha you have the rght to exist?

[Hunter Clarke]

12:56 PM on 02/12/2012

They would be no less hated in the Democratic Party for their fiscal conservatism than they are in the Republican Party for their sexual orientation. Perhaps more.

[OnLesAura]

10:32 PM on 02/12/2012

Yes Rambrewster, they claim to be fiscal conservatives, but quiz them on a few glaring inconvenient truths, and they're caught between a rock and a hard place, their fiscal ideology vs the record e.g. (1) the deficit skyrocketed under Reagan(2) they crucified moderate Bush41 for his sensible, budget-balancing plan to wipe up some of the Reagan's unfunded excesses by moderately raising taxes, because it broke the Sacred Mantra pledge ("read my lips:No New Taxes!")made during the campaign, for which he was rewarded with outrage, scorn and electoral defeat,many tax-phobic Reps defecting in 1992 toPerot (3) Bush43 not only wiped out the $400+billion Clinton surplus,he left us with a deficit topping $500 billion-i.e.nearly a TRILLION$ swing,equal to roughly 7% of GNP,brought about by two completely unfunded wars,(the costs intentionally kept "off-balance-sheet",i.e.NOT included in the national budget) and obscene tax cuts for the top tiers. Economists' projections calculate that direct&indirect post-conflict costsof Iraq/Afghanistan already run TRILLIONS in unfunded debt. This is an infinitely greater threat to our economic future than problems with Medicare/SocialSecurity.

Republicans fight ferociously to maintain tax code inequities,supporting loopholes and complexities allowing multi-millionaires to pay absurdly low rates; Romney's rate the last couple of years (13.9%) was well below the already super-low 15% rate applicable to dividend income.

But insofar as fiscal policy ranks as a higher priority than gay civil rights for them, LogCabin gays are totally bona fide Republicans.

[BooTay]

10:38 PM on 02/11/2012

Stockholm Syndrome has a very strong hold on these two. Pity.

[nhr 215]

08:02 PM on 02/11/2012

Why on earth would you support a party that detests and excludes you???? You can organize, donate and vote for Mitt Romney all you want without identifying as GOProud.... How about MittProud or whatever.....

Fawning over a party that finds contemptible is just sad and pathetic...

[VagabondBull]

02:46 PM on 02/11/2012

These GOProud people are like a dog that keeps coming back to a master that kicks it. All they must know is abuse. How could anyone possibly put up with type of behavior from a group they support?

[johntangier]

01:20 PM on 02/11/2012

YEAH THE GOPROUD FOUNDERS ARE GOING WITH ROMNEY BECAUSE HE HATES THE GAY'S LESS HUH?

[pdsimdars]

10:58 AM on 02/11/2012

All of those GOProud-ers must be masochists. I think the thing she was trying to get at, which is the thing EVERYONE wants to know, is how can they choose to go into the tent with people who revile them? What kind of minds do they have? What political position, on which political issue is so strong that you choose THAT issue over your own dignity and self-worth? I'd like to know that.

[zest]

12:55 PM on 02/11/2012

They are used to being reviled and thrive on it. They have experienced so little acceptance that they do not identify with it.

[Electriq]

10:28 AM on 02/11/2012

Is there any conceivable way we can revoke Sam the Eagle & Howdy Doody's gay membership cards?

Do Not Want.