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So, CPAC Had A Gay Rights Panel. How Did That Go?

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CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, tonight (shockingly) held a gay rights panel titled “A Rainbow on the Right: Growing the Coalition, Bringing Tolerance Out of the Closet.” The panel’s existence was thanks to the libertarian group, Competitive Enterprise Institute, which sponsored the event after it was confirmed gay Tea Party group GOProud would be banned this year, again.

How did it go?

Among the speakers were Jimmy LaSalvia, GOProud‘s co-founder, who said, “We have tolerated something in out movement for far too long: bigotry against gay people,” according to Alex Seitz-Wald at Salon:

LaSalvia, deploying stronger language than he’s used in the past, said “bigotry has to be called out and condemned.” It’s the “same as racism,” he said. He continued: “If we don’t stand up to it, everyone will think we agree with it.”

He also said that he thinks homophobia “contributes more to conservatives’ image problem than anything else,” because there are gay people in every community and demographic group and almost every family in the country. Opposition to marriage equality alone, however, is not bigotry, he added.

Slated to appear on the panel, in addition to LaSalvia were Fred Smith of CEI, Liz Mair, Jonah Goldberg, Margaret Hoover, and Jennifer Rubin.

Here’s a Storify story of tweets about tonight’s event and how it went:

 
[View the story “So, CPAC Had A Gay Rights Panel… How Did That Go?” on Storify]

So, CPAC Had A Gay Rights Panel… How Did That Go?

CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, is rabidly anti-gay — at least the old guard of CPAC, including its founders, the ACU are. But there’s a rising tide for LGBT people, it seems…

Storified by David Badash· Thu, Mar 14 2013 16:35:58

Looks like the LGBT rights panel was VERY popular: 
CPAC bars @GOProud for 2nd consecutive year. CEI invites @GOPROUD to panel. Result: http://pic.twitter.com/AfahbKeAx3daveweigel
MUCH more popular than the anti-gay NOM panel, with National Organization For Marriage president Brian Brown, Breitbart editor at large Ben Shapiro, and long-term veteran anti-gay activist Cleta Mitchell
Lot of empty seats for Cleta Mitchell, Hans von Spakovsky, Ben Shapiro & Brian Brown’s #cpac2013 panel.chrisgeidner
Off to the side at CPAC: GOProud cofounder Jimmy LaSalvia sits on a panel. One of the smallest rooms at CPAC, but it’s packed.Kasie Hunt
Applause as @JonahNRO takes CPAC to task for not inviting GOProud but inviting TrumpZeke Miller
From @JRubinBlogger on gay rights: ‘debate has already taken place in America and [conservatives] cannot be at war with America’ #CPACTom Rogan
Listening to @JimmyLaSalvia at #CPAC #CEI making a speech about gay rights in the conservative movement. He’s right, Freedom must be for allTom Rogan
‘Millions of Americans will join us if we ask them’ @JimmyLaSalvia at #CPAC #CEITom Rogan
Rubin also thinks gay marriage will not be a political issue in 10 years #cpacBen Jacobs
Packed house for the gay marriage panel. #CPAC2013 http://pic.twitter.com/Yfia76fZPJJonathan Krohn
The fact that @GOProud still aren’t allowed to have a booth at #CPAC of course slightly slows momentum of gay rights in GOPMartin Gelin
Actual sweet moment when Jimmy from @GOProud says, voice trembling, “this room is the future of the GOP” at pro gay rights panel at #CPACMartin Gelin
.@JonahNRO says Donald Trump is more of a questionable choice for #cpac2013 than “a Republican who happens to be gay.”Chris Geidner
Standing room only crowd at the gay rights panel at #CPAC2013 http://pic.twitter.com/PI33YkNsNkGuy Benson
Gay Americans were the only minority group where #gop made gains in 2012 election. #CPAC2013Heather Long
@LizMair whats the one minority vote that INCREASED from 2008 to 2012: Gay Americans #tcot #CPAC2013Kevin McKeever
Stop the #HeteroH8, Gay-wing supremacists!!! #CPAC2013El SOOPer!!
Argument at pro-gay #CPAC2013 panel ostensibly boils down to: We should get everyone to marry & grow old & become more conservativeSally Kohn
.@JonahNRO is knocking it out of the park in the @GOPROUD panel. #CPAC2013Chuck Clothier (I)
So @JonahNRO says: “I was called RINO for wanting Chris Christie to be invited and @goproud to have booth, but #CPAC2013 let Trump speakHeather Long
Gotta love #CPAC2013. Run into @GOPROUD’s @JimmyLaSalvia. Take an escalator, walk 10 paces, run to the prez of @NOMtweetsdaveweigel
Damn good speech by @jimmylasalvia of @goproud making the case for GOP outreach to gays #CPAC2013 “will you join the movement?”Heather Long
@daveweigel From the pic, I see mostly men there at the @GOPROUD / CEI thing. Accurate assessment? #CPAC2013Sister Toldjah
Completely packed room for #cpac2013 unofficial panel on including #LGBT inclusion in the conservative movement. http://pic.twitter.com/4kdjgSRiH5Andrew Eilts

 

Image, top, by Dave Weigel via Twitter

Related:

CPAC Bans Gay Republican Group — But Gets A Gay Rights Panel In Return

CPAC Urged To Hold Panel On Why ‘Homosexual Movement Prone To Violence, Terror, And Treason’

In Policy Flip, Gay GOP Group Now Officially Supports Same-Sex Marriage

 

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News

‘You Don’t Care’: Gay Congressman Blasts Defense Secretary Over LGBTQ Troops

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U.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen, a Democrat and the first openly gay member of Congress from Illinois, delivered strong criticism of U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, accusing the embattled Pentagon chief of not caring about LGBTQ service members, and fostering an environment where LGBTQ people do not want to join the military. He also brought up the planned renaming of the USNS Harvey Milk, which the Secretary reportedly ordered to intentionally coincide with LGBTQ Pride Month.

Congressman Sorensen told Secretary Hegseth that Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official in California, who was assassinated in 1978, served “courageously,” but was forced to resign from the Navy because he was gay.

“You see,” Congressman Sorensen said, “as a kid, all I wanted to be was the weatherman on TV. You know, I learned that I could have gone into the Army or the Navy to learn meteorology. But someone like me was not allowed. They didn’t want someone like me, Mr. Secretary.”

READ MORE: ‘Coup’: What DHS Secretary’s ‘Liberate’ Comment Means, According to Experts

“There wasn’t anything that I could do to change myself, or the way that my nation thought of me. And so I want to keep this very simple. Do you believe that Harvey Milk is a veteran who deserves his country’s thanks?”

Hegseth attempted to dodge the question.

“Sir, the decision to rename the ship was—” Hegseth began.

“I’m just asking, do you believe that Harvey Milk is a veteran who deserves his country’s thanks? Yes or no,” Sorensen pressed.

“If his service was deemed honorable, yes,” the Secretary replied.

“I disagree with your leadership,” Sorensen said, “because I believe that every veteran deserves our thanks. We all walk in the footsteps of leaders before us, and you may not find the value in the fact that many of those people are women, with different skin colors, different backgrounds, different talents, immigrants, gay, straight, transgender, disabled.”

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“You may want to change it, but you can’t. Because the America that you and I both serve is a place where everyone has the ability—or should have the ability—to grow up and be the hero their grandpa was. I wanted to do that when I was a kid.”

“We’re going back to that time,” the congressman warned. “Gay kids like me, they don’t want to go into the Army. They don’t want to go into the Navy, because you don’t care for them. It’s happening all over our country.”

“My grandpa taught me never to judge the value of a veteran’s service. And I hope, Mr. Secretary, you learn to do the same in your capacity, and you can find it in your heart, to make that part of your process.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: Democrats Demand Noem Testify After Handcuffing of US Senator Padilla

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News

‘Coup’: What DHS Secretary’s ‘Liberate’ Comment Means, According to Experts

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Before her protective squad forcibly removed, detained, and handcuffed a sitting U.S. Senator asking a question at her Los Angeles press conference, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem delivered remarks that legal and political experts warn are explosive.

“We are not going away,” Secretary Noem vowed, regarding herself and her Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, other DHS operatives, and the U.S. Military, all of whom she promised would “continue to sustain and increase our operations in this city.”

“We are staying here to liberate this city from the socialist and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country here,” she declared, referring to Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom and Democratic Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.

Experts are once again sounding the alarm.

READ MORE: In Reversal, Trump Uses Term Tied to Ethnic Cleansing Amid Renewed Mass Deportation Demand

“I think the governor and mayor of Los Angeles are right,” declared U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) on MSNBC on Thursday night. “I think they’re testing out their ability to essentially commandeer National Guards throughout the country, and use them for their own purposes.”

“One thing that got lost in the horrendous treatment of Alex Padilla today,” Schiff continued, “was what Kristi Noem said at that press conference in saying that it was necessary to have these troops there to ‘liberate’ the city from the socialists. That’s the kind of rhetoric the administration is using.”

He went on to say that “the fact that they would abuse the military that way and justify it that way is unconscionable.”

Other critics weighed in as well.

Quoting Secretary Noem’s remarks, Harvard University Professor Emeritus Laurence Tribe, a top constitutional law scholar, wrote: “Using military force to displace a democratically elected state government is called a coup.”

Former prosecutor and former Hill staffer Stephen Rodio remarked, “Trump’s regime is going to liberate us from the people that we elected to represent us.”

“Be clear on what she’s saying here,” wrote podcaster Joe Walsh, a former GOP Tea Party Congressman and now a Democrat and political commentator. “She’s saying that Trump is going to use the U.S. military to overthrow both the duly elected Mayor of Los Angeles & the Governor of California. I understand she’s not very bright, but, in essence, she’s saying the federal government has declared war on California.”

READ MORE: Democrats Demand Noem Testify After Handcuffing of US Senator Padilla

“Quiet Part Out Loud?” asked U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI). “Sounds a lot like she’s saying they’re there to liberate the city from its elected government.

Lincoln Project senior advisor Stuart Stevens also quoted Noem’s remarks, then wrote: “That’s a statement of intent of a coup, to ‘liberate’ a state from legally elected officials. Then armed men tackle and shackle one of those leaders. Nothing about we are here to arrest violent offenders and support law enforcement.”

“The declared purpose is to undo the choice of voters. Nothing like this has ever happened in modern America except the insurrection of Jan. 6th, which Noem supported, including her support for pardoning those who assaulted law enforcement.”

“Greeted as liberators, you say?” wrote Wall Street Journal reporter Alex Ward, appearing to echo former Bush 43 Vice President Dick Cheney’s fated 2003 Iraq War claim.

“Do the decent thing and resign, Noem,” urged former U.S, Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH). “The world is watching.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Not Today Hegseth’: Dem Slams Defense Secretary as ‘Unfit to Lead’ in Fiery Exchange

 

Image via Reuters

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News

In Reversal, Trump Uses Term Tied to Ethnic Cleansing Amid Renewed Mass Deportation Demand

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Facing backlash from his base over an announced, possible exemption for undocumented immigrants working in agriculture and hospitality, President Donald Trump has entirely reversed course, now calling for the mass “remigration” of all undocumented individuals. The term “remigration” is closely associated with ethnic cleansing and far-right European movements, including the neo-fascist political party backed by both Trump and his vice president.

In a wild rant steeped in fascist and ethnonationalist rhetoric, Trump baselessly attacked the Biden administration and characterized all undocumented immigrants as takers costing the country billions—despite the fact that the undocumented population is a net economic positive for the United States.

“The Biden Administration and Governor Newscum,” Trump declared Tuesday evening—using his derogatory nickname for California Governor Gavin Newsom—“flooded America with 21 Million Illegal Aliens, destroying Schools, Hospitals and Communities, and consuming untold Billions of Dollars in Free Welfare.”

READ MORE: Democrats Demand Noem Testify After Handcuffing of US Senator Padilla

These claims are not supported by evidence.

“All of them have to go home, as do countless other Illegals and Criminals, who will turn us into a bankrupt Third World Nation. America was invaded and occupied. I am reversing the Invasion. It’s called Remigration. Our courageous ICE Officers, who are daily being subjected to doxxing and murder threats, are HEROES. We will always have their back as they carry out this noble mission. America will be for Americans again!”

Just one day earlier, Trump had declared that undocumented immigrants working on farms, in agriculture, the hotel and entertainment industries are “very good, long time workers,” who are “almost impossible to replace.”

READ MORE: ‘Not Today Hegseth’: Dem Slams Defense Secretary as ‘Unfit to Lead’ in Fiery Exchange

Changes are coming!” he vowed.

“Our farmers,” Trump also said Thursday at a press conference, according to The New York Times, “are being hurt badly by, you know, they have very good workers, they have worked for them for 20 years.”

“They’re not citizens, but they’ve turned out to be, you know, great. And we’re going to have to do something about that. We can’t take farmers and take all their people and send them back because they don’t have maybe what they’re supposed to have, maybe not.”

“We can’t do that to our farmers and leisure, too, hotels,” he said, suggesting an executive order was in the works. “We’re going to have to use a lot of common sense on that.”

All that appears to have been a blip.

READ MORE: ‘Mouthpiece for the Kremlin’: Rubio Scorched for ‘Russia Day’ Congratulations

 

Image via Reuters

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