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‘Cancer’ Of Anti-Gay Bigotry Leads Gay Republican Group Founder To Quit GOP

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var addthis_config = {“data_track_addressbar”:true};Jimmy LaSalvia is not one for who speaks softly by padding or editing his words to make them sound nice.

In a 2011 Twitter conversation with right-wing FBI informant Brandon Darby, LaSalvia tagged me and wrote, “the gay left is the most hateful intolerant group in the country,” adding, “it’s nothing new, just the way they are.”

Repeating his boilerplate language a few weeks later on NPR, LaSalvia said on “The Brian Lehrer Show,” that the “gay Left is, by far, the most intolerant toward us” — “us” being gay Republicans.

LaSalvia is the co-founder and former executive director of GOProud, a gay Tea Party Republican group that never really accomplished much — except throwing a few fundraisers (including one headlined by anti-gay conservative Ann Coulter, who had no problem then or now attacking and mocking LGBT people) and raising a ruckus every chance they got.

Tossing out verbal grenades was actually just common conversation for GOProud’s co-founders, at least in 2011. “The gay left = the American Taliban. Hateful, angry and dumb as shit,” tweeted GOProud co-founder Chris Barron in January 2011.

“More and more Republican candidates are understanding that” there’s a large conservative gay vote, LaSalvia claimed as well, adding, “and making their case to gay voters.”

But now that same-sex marriage is increasingly becoming the law of the land, LaSalvia is moving on — from the Republican party.

In a widely-discussed post this week on his own blog — “Jimmy LaSalvia | A Voice for the New Majority!,” LaSalvia writes:

Today, I joined the ranks of unaffiliated voters. I am every bit as conservative as I’ve always been, but I just can’t bring myself to carry the Republican label any longer. You see, I just don’t agree with the big-government ‘conservatives’ who run the party now.

But the real reason he is getting the attention he craves is that LaSalvia has finally come to realize what “the most hateful intolerant group in the country” — the “gay left” — has known all along.

The other reason I am leaving is the tolerance of bigotry in the GOP. The current leadership lacks the courage to stand up to it – I’m not sure they ever will.

After years rising through the ranks of the Log Cabin Republicans, LaSalvia quit, reportedly because the decades-old gay GOP group had drifted too far to the left.

And now he’s quitting the GOP altogether — but not without some self-congratulatory reflection.

“I have worked hard to help to create an atmosphere on the right where conservatives can openly support gay Americans and even support same-sex marriage,” LaSalvia continues in his blog post. “In that effort, we have won, but there is more work to do to root out the anti-gay and other forms of bigotry in the party.”

“In that effort, we have won”? Really?

(Barack Obama’s words during the 2012 debates come to mind: “Please, Governor, continue”…)

That’s the same claim of success Chris Barron voiced when he and LaSalvia “quit” daily operations at GOProud, after LaSalvia wrote on  Twitter, “I’ve just about had it with faggots who line their pockets with checks from anti-gay homophobes while throwing the rest of us under the bus.” He later deleted that tweet. Barron shortly thereafter clarified, tweeting, “Rick Perry’s pollster & strategist is a gay guy. Totally disgusting.”

That outing of Perry’s pollster caused Andrew Breitbart to quit the board of GOProud.

Explaining their “resignations,” Barron at the time told Buzzfeed, “The reason why GOProud has been so successful is because we have brought new ideas and new energy to the arena. At some point, what was the outside-the-box thinking all of the sudden becomes the box, and so now, that’s the way that GOProud does things. It’s our box. It seems crazy to everyone else, but, for us, it’s like standard operating procedure. It’s time for someone else to come in and shake things up.”

Given the extent of anti-gay animus and outright hate on the Right — including from Republicans, Tea Party members, and conservatives in general — it’s hard to accept LaSalvia’s (or Barron’s) claims of being “successful” or having “won,” but perhaps winning is in the eye of the beholder.

GOProud did have one “win,” however.

In fact, it was one year ago this week that GOProud decided to throw in the towel and officially support same-sex marriage. That’s right, the LGBT organization did not officially support marriage equality until last January — after the 2012 election, in which they endorsed Mitt Romney.

Yes, despite Mitt Romney in 2012 supporting a federal marriage amendment to the Constitution that would define marriage as an institution between a man and a woman, despite Mitt Romney claiming that hospital visitation for gay couples are “benefits” and not rights, and despite Mitt Romney telling a group of LGBT parents, “I didn’t know you had families,” GOProud endorsed Mitt Romney. They even claimed Romney was “light years better” than Barack Obama.

Worse, GOProud even had said they would support Michele Bachmann, were she the party’s nominee.

In an exclusive interview with The Raw Story’s David Ferguson, published this morning, LaSalvia “likened being a gay man and ‘team player’ in the Republican Party to being the parent of a crack-addicted teen.”

“I’ve found myself in a situation where I’m beating my head against a wall,” said LaSalvia, “trying to help an organization that does not share my values. My values do not tolerate bigotry.”
…

“That’s the question,” he said, “whether they’re going to go the way of the Dixiecrats, whether they’re going to hold on to their bigotry to the bitter end. And I think they might.”

“I liken what I did in leaving the party this week,” he said, “to tough love parenting. You try to help your drug-addicted child to the point where you just have to put your foot down and cut them off because they’ve got to hit bottom before they’re going to realize.”

“I thought that they had hit bottom after the last election. And they even did treatment in the form of an autopsy report,” he said, “but they still haven’t given up their crack.”

Talking about RNC Chairman Reince Priebus’ now-infamous “GOP autopsy,” a report detailing where the Republican Party went wrong during the 2012 election cycle and what they need to do to win elections, LaSalvia told the Raw Story:

“To me, the autopsy kind of seems a year later like they’ve taken a terminally ill cancer patient in for a makeover,” he said. “She feels good, she looks great, but at the end of the day, the cancer’s going to kill her unless you cut it out of her.”

Curiously, LaSalvia is responsible for bringing RNC Committeeman Dave Agema‘s latest, ugly, anti-gay attack to light.

Agema last year Agema had posted on his Facebook page a link to a website that labels gay people as “filthy,” claims the “median age of death of lesbians is 45 (only 24% live past age 65),” “Homosexuals are 100 times more likely to be murdered,” “25-33% of homosexuals and lesbians are alcoholics,” “50% of suicides can be attributed to homosexuals,” and “78% of homosexuals are affected by STDs.”

Las week, Agema praised Vladimir Purtin’s anti-gay laws as “Common sense in Russia!”

LaSalvia didn’t mention that in his GOP resignation.

Meanwhile, will LaSalvia’s leaving the Republican Party make a difference?

Perhaps the answer is based on one question: Did LaSalvia make a difference when he was in the Republican Party?

Last March, LaSalvia spoke at the at the University of Pittsburgh:

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Post by Jimmy LaSalvia.

 
Apparently, the answer, less than one year later, to “can you be gay and a conservative,” is, “no.”

Image via Jimmy LaSalvia’s Facebook page

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OPINION

‘I Hope You Find Happiness’: Moskowitz Trolls Comer Over Impeachment Fail

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15 hours ago

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April 24, 2024

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U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) is mocking House Oversight Committee Chairman Jim Comer over a CNN report revealing the embattled Kentucky Republican who has been alleging without proof President Joe Biden is the head of a vast multi-million dollar criminal bribery and influence-peddling conspiracy, has given up trying to impeach the leader of the free world.

CNN on Wednesday had reported, “after 15 months of coming up short in proving some of his biggest claims against the president, Comer recently approached one of his Republican colleagues and made a blunt admission: He was ready to be ‘done with’ the impeachment inquiry into Biden.” The news network described Chairman Comer as “frustrated” and his investigation as “at a dead end.”

One GOP lawmaker told CNN, “Comer is hoping Jesus comes so he can get out.”

“He is fed up,” the Republican added.

Despite the Chairman’s alleged remarks, “a House Oversight Committee spokesperson maintains that ‘the impeachment inquiry is ongoing and impeachment is 100% still on the table.'”

RELATED: ‘Used by the Russians’: Moskowitz Mocks Comer’s Biden Impeachment Failure

Last week, Oversight Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) got into a shouting match with Chairman Comer, with the Maryland Democrat saying, “You have not identified a single crime – what is the crime that you want to impeach Joe Biden for and keep this nonsense going?” and Comer replying, “You’re about to find out.”

Before those heated remarks, Congressman Raskin chided Comer, humorously threatening to invite Rep. Moskowitz to return to the hearing.

Congressman Moskowitz appears to be the only member of the House Oversight Committee who has ever made a motion to call for a vote on impeaching President Biden, which he did last month, although he did it to ridicule Chairman Comer.

It appears the Moskowitz-Comer “bromance” may be over.

Wednesday afternoon Congressman Moskowitz, whose sarcasm is becoming well-known, used it to ridicule Chairman Comer.

“I was hoping our breakup would never become public,” he declared. “We had such a great thing while it lasted James. I will miss the time we spent together. I will miss our conversations. I will miss the pet names you gave me. I only wish you the best and hope you find happiness.”

Watch the video above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Doesn’t Care if Pregnant Women Live or Die’: Alito Slammed Over Emergency Abortion Remarks

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OPINION

‘Doesn’t Care if Pregnant Women Live or Die’: Alito Slammed Over Emergency Abortion Remarks

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17 hours ago

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April 24, 2024

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The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case centered on the question, can the federal government require states with strict abortion bans to allow physicians to perform abortions in emergency situations, specifically when the woman’s health, but not her life, is in danger?

The 1986 federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), signed into law by Republican President Ronald Reagan, says it can. The State of Idaho on Wednesday argued it cannot.

U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, The Washington Post’s Kim Bellware reported, “made a clear delineation between Idaho law and what EMTALA provides.”

“In Idaho, doctors have to shut their eyes to everything except death,” Prelogar said, according to Bellware. “Whereas under EMTALA, you’re supposed to be thinking about things like, ‘Is she about to lose her fertility? Is her uterus going to become incredibly scarred because of the bleeding? Is she about to undergo the possibility of kidney failure?’ ”

READ MORE: Gag Order Breach? Trump Targeted Cohen in Taped Interview Hours Before Contempt Hearing

Attorney Imani Gandy, an award-winning journalist and Editor-at-Large for Rewire News Group, highlighted an issue central to the case.

“The issue of medical judgment vs. good faith judgment is a huge one because different states have different standards of judgment,” she writes. “If a doctor exercises their judgment, another doctor expert witness at trial could question that. That’s a BIG problem here. That’s why doctors are afraid to provide abortions. They may have an overzealous prosecutor come behind them and disagree.”

Right-wing Justice Samuel Alito appeared to draw the most fire from legal experts, as his questioning suggested “fetal personhood” should be the law, which it is not.

“Justice Alito is trying to import fetal personhood into federal statutory law by suggesting federal law might well prohibit hospitals from providing abortions as emergency stabilizing care,” observed Constitutional law professor Anthony Michael Kreis.

Paraphrasing Justice Alito, Kreis writes: “Alito: How can the federal government restrict what Idaho criminalizes simply because hospitals in Idaho have accepted federal funds?”

Appearing to answer that question, Georgia State University College of Law professor of law and Constitutional scholar Eric Segall wrote: “Our Constitution unequivocally allows the federal gov’t to offer the states money with conditions attached no matter how invasive b/c states can always say no. The conservative justices’ hostility to the spending power is based only on politics and values not text or history.”

Professor Segall also served up some of the strongest criticism of the right-wing justice.

READ MORE: ‘They Will Have Thugs?’: Lara Trump’s Claim RNC Will ‘Physically Handle the Ballots’ Stuns

He wrote that Justice Alito “is basically making it clear he doesn’t care if pregnant women live or die as long as the fetus lives.”

Earlier Wednesday morning Segall had issued a warning: “Trigger alert: In about 20 minutes several of the conservative justices are going to show very clearly that that they care much more about fetuses than women suffering major pregnancy complications which is their way of owning the libs which is grotesque.”

Later, predicting “Alito is going to dissent,” Segall wrote: “Alito is dripping arrogance and condescension…in a case involving life, death, and medical emergencies. He has no bottom.”

Taking a broader view of the case, NYU professor of law Melissa Murray issued a strong warning: “The EMTALA case, Moyle v. US, hasn’t received as much attention as the mifepristone case, but it is huge. Not only implicates access to emergency medical procedures (like abortion in cases of miscarriage), but the broader question of federal law supremacy.”

READ MORE: ‘Blood on Your Hands’: Tennessee Republicans OK Arming Teachers After Deadly School Shooting

 

 

 

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Gag Order Breach? Trump Targeted Cohen in Taped Interview Hours Before Contempt Hearing

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19 hours ago

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April 24, 2024

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Hours before his attorneys would mount a defense on Tuesday claiming he had not violated his gag order Donald Trump might have done just that in a 12-minute taped interview that morning, which did not air until later that day. It will be up to Judge Juan Merchan to make that decision, if prosecutors add it to their contempt request.

Prosecutors in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office told Judge Juan Merchan that the ex-president violated the gag order ten times, via posts on his Truth Social platform, and are asking he be held in contempt. While the judge has yet to rule, he did not appear moved by their arguments. At one point, Judge Merchan told Trump’s lead lawyer Todd Blanche he was “losing all credibility” with the court.

And while Judge Merchan directed defense attorneys to provide a detailed timeline surrounding Trump’s Truth Social posts to prove he had not violated the gag order, Trump in an interview with a local television station appeared to have done so.

READ MORE: ‘They Will Have Thugs?’: Lara Trump’s Claim RNC Will ‘Physically Handle the Ballots’ Stuns

The gag order bars Trump from “commenting or causing others to comment on potential witnesses in the case, prospective jurors, court staff, lawyers in the district attorney’s office and the relatives of any counsel or court staffer, as CBS News reported.

“The threat is very real,” Judge Merchan wrote when he expanded the gag order. “Admonitions are not enough, nor is reliance on self-restraint. The average observer, must now, after hearing Defendant’s recent attacks, draw the conclusion that if they become involved in these proceedings, even tangentially, they should worry not only for themselves, but for their loved ones as well. Such concerns will undoubtedly interfere with the fair administration of justice and constitutes a direct attack on the Rule of Law itself.”

Tuesday morning, Trump told ABC Philadelphia’s Action News reporter Walter Perez, “Michael Cohen is a convicted liar. He’s got no credibility whatsoever.”

He repeated that Cohen is a “convicted liar,” and insisted he “was a lawyer for many people, not just me.”

READ MORE: ‘Old and Tired and Mad’: Trump’s Demeanor in Court Detailed by Rachel Maddow

Since Cohen is a witness in Trump’s New York criminal case, Judge Merchan might decide Trump’s remarks during that interview violated the gag order, if prosecutors bring the video to his attention.

Enter attorney George Conway, who has been attending Trump’s New York trial.

Conway reposted a clip of the video, tagged Manhattan District Attorney Bragg, writing: “cc: @ManhattanDA, for your proposed order to show cause why the defendant in 𝘗𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘷. 𝘛𝘳𝘶𝘮𝘱 should not spend some quiet time in lockup.”

Trump has been criminally indicted in four separate cases and is facing a total of 88 felony charges, including 34 in this New York criminal trial for alleged falsification of business records to hide payments of “hush money” to an adult film actress and one other woman, in an alleged effort to suppress their stories and protect his 2016 presidential campaign, which experts say is election interference.

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Blood on Your Hands’: Tennessee Republicans OK Arming Teachers After Deadly School Shooting

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