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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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News

‘Impossible to Lose’: Trump Pitches Strategy to Cement One-Party Rule

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November 7, 2025

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President Donald Trump renewed his demand that Republican senators eliminate the 60-vote filibuster, which he sees as one of the biggest roadblocks to achieving his far-reaching agenda. Now, he said he wants to eliminate the filibuster as a way to ensure permanent Republican control of the government.

The president has been calling for senators to act, despite Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s strong opposition to invoking the “nuclear option.”

In a lengthy Truth Social post last week, Trump expressed his agenda.

“It is now time for the Republicans to play their ‘TRUMP CARD,’ and go for what is called the Nuclear Option — Get rid of the Filibuster, and get rid of it, NOW!” he declared.

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He warned that Democrats want to “substantially expand (PACK!) the United States Supreme Court, make Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico States (Thereby automatically picking up 4 Senate seats, many House seats, and at least 8 Electoral Votes!), and many other highly destructive things.”

“Well, now WE are in power, and if we did what we should be doing, it would IMMEDIATELY end this ridiculous, Country destroying ‘SHUT DOWN.'”

Trump then admitted: “I want to do it in order to take advantage of the Democrats….”

Trump has repeated his call to end the filibuster several times since then, most recently on Friday afternoon.

“The Democrats will do this,” he said of killing the filibuster, “so if the Democrats are gonna do it, I’m saying Republicans should do it before they get a chance.”

“It’s very simple,” Trump explained.

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“And if we do it, we will never lose the midterms, and we will never lose the general election, because we will have produced so many different things for our people — for the people, for the country — that it would be impossible to lose an election.”

Critics quickly weighed in with warnings.

“I thought the vice president Vance statement about ignoring judges would be it for today,” wrote The Steady State, a group of over 350 former national security and intelligence officials, referring to JD Vance’s apparent suggestion to ignore a federal judge’s order to release about $6 billion in SNAP funds.

“President Trump went a little farther in terms of crossing yet another red line,” the group continued, “explaining why he wants [the] filibuster gone he is very clear. One party rule. Elections that he and his never lose —— that is autocracy.”

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Image via Reuters

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‘Unique Action’: Trump Admin Spins Flight Cancellations as Fix for Traveling Frustration

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4 hours ago

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November 7, 2025

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U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy sought Friday to cast a positive light on the Federal Aviation Administration’s order requiring airlines to cut ten percent of flights at 40 major airports — a move prompted by overworked air traffic controllers who have gone weeks without pay as the government shutdown stretches into its 38th day with no immediate end in sight.

More than 800 flights nationwide were canceled on Friday, leaving some travelers “scrambling to figure out backup plans,” the Associated Press reported.

But According to Secretary Duffy, he has come up with a “unique action” that reduces a major frustration of air travel: flight delays.

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“I asked the head of the air traffic controller union to reach out to his controllers, to ask them to show up. It is their jobs,” Duffy said on Friday.

“If they start coming to work, we may have the same experience we had in Newark: We had delays and cancellations in Newark in the early summer. We reduced the capacity, and then the flights were on time. Right?”

“It was the most on-time months we had in Newark ever,” he added. “So that could be an outcome of what we’re doing, and we’ll see probably more people on less flights, which means less pressure on controllers.”

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Secretary Duffy also said, “There’s a very easy solution to the problem that they put directly on my lap, which is open the damn government. Vote to open the government, so those who snipe at me for having to take really unique action — they put that on my plate.”

Critics blasted Duffy.

Republican former U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger wrote: “Cutting flights because of the govt shutdown is a stunt, plain and simple.”

He also remarked, “We’re cutting flights and food because of the govt shutdown but ICE is out [in] full force!”

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Trump Admin Starts Setting Stage for Recession — and Shifting the Blame

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7 hours ago

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November 7, 2025

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The Trump administration has begun quietly preparing Americans for the possibility that the economy may be nearing a recession — a broad and painful downturn that officials appear increasingly concerned may be on the horizon.

Economist Kevin Hassett, director of the Trump White House’s National Economic Council, on Friday laid both the groundwork and the blame for any impending recession.

“There’s holiday travel, but there’s business travel,” he told Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo, as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) cut ten percent of flights — about 700 — in 40 high-volume markets across the country as air traffic controllers, who have not been paid in weeks due to the federal government shutdown, are increasingly overworked and under financial strain.

“Business travel is a really big, important part of air travel, and if ten percent of business travel isn’t happening, those are deals that aren’t being cut, and hotel rooms that aren’t being filled,” Hassett explained. “And so the ripple effects, and then the multiplier effects of all that, are really, really large.”

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“And so I think Secretary Bessent wisely said we’re starting to see pockets of the economy that look like they might be in a recession, that we’re not in a recession because of this, but there are pockets that are really hurting,” he added. “And if we go another month or so, then who knows how bad the economy could be this quarter?”

“And we know whose fault that will be,” Hassett said.

Hassett was referring to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s remarks earlier this week.

“I think that there are sectors of the economy that are in recession,” Bessent said on CNN on Sunday, as The New York Times reported.

“He described the economy as being in a ‘period of transition’ because of a pullback in government spending to reduce the deficit,” the Times added. “He called on the Fed[eral Reserve] to support the economy by cutting interest rates.”

The Times also explained the White House’s strategy:

“Mr. Bessent’s remarks added to pressure on the Fed and deflected blame from Mr. Trump in case the economy does ultimately face a downturn, reinforcing a strategy that has been in place since the start of the year. As the administration has imposed aggressive tariffs on nearly all of America’s trading partners and slashed federal spending, potentially slowing growth, it has sought to pin blame squarely on the Fed in the event of an economic downturn.”

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But Hassett’s remarks appeared focused on pinning the blame for a possible recession on the shutdown of the federal government, which Republicans and the White House insist is the fault of Democrats.

President Donald Trump has railed against the Democrats over the shutdown, while increasingly demanding the Senate end it by going “nuclear” and eliminating the upper chamber’s 60-vote threshold for the filibuster, opting instead for a simple majority of votes to pass legislation.

For example, on Tuesday in a Truth Social post, President Trump vowed to hold up SNAP funds despite court orders, writing that food stamp benefits “will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!”

READ MORE: ‘Sick’: Hunger Caucus Head Slams GOP for ‘Starving Children’ by ‘Weaponizing’ SNAP

 

Image via Reuters

 

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