David Keene, the head of CPAC’s main organizing group, has assured a right-wing radio host that gay Republican group GOProud, which earlier this month (to the dismay of anti-gay wingnuts) announced it had signed on as a co-sponsor of the conservative confab, would neither have a speaking role at the conference nor would its issues be debated.
Said Keene: "GOProud 'has signed on as a CPAC co-sponsor, but will have no speakers and we told them that, in fact, since opposition to gay marriage, etc are consensus positions (if not unanimous) among conservatives, these topics are not open to debate….I know that there are those who are as opposed to the sinner as the
sin, but our view is that CPAC is inclusive and welcomes all of those
who agree with us on most issues. I don’t know the GOProud people
personally, but we find it difficult to exclude groups because of
disagreements on one or two issues no matter how important many of us
believe those issues to be … other examples: we have pro-life and
pro-abortion co-sponsors, advocates of restrictive and more open
immigration, supporters and opponents of the war in Afghanistan and
supporters and opponents of some of the restrictions adopted in the war
on terror since 9/11…Some of these issues draw significant support on both sides of the
question from the broad movement and these we often debate at CPAC …
trade policy, immigration are example … while others like abortion are
consensus positions and while we accept those who differ from the
consensus, we see no reason for further debate. Gay issues fall within
this category."