Coulter headlines new conservative group event

Just three days after the high-profile gay conservative fundraiser hosted by former Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman and friends, there was another high-profile gay conservative fundraiser in New York City.

This second fundraiser featured a celebrity comic-commentator who has garnered considerable attention for such zingers as suggesting former Democratic presidential candidate was a “faggot,” that former Vice President Al Gore was a “total fag,” and that former President Bill Clinton shows “some level of latent homosexuality.”

Ann Coulter was the headline for the September 25 “HomoCon” event sponsored by GOProud, a new gay political organization and one that bills itself as an organization for “gay conservatives.” The key distinction, explains its co-founder and current board chairman, Christopher Barron, is that the group is “not a Republican Party auxiliary,” like Log Cabin Republicans. Both Barron and GOProud Executive Director Jimmy LaSalvia are former Log Cabin officials. Barron served Log Cabin as national political director, LaSalvia as director of programs and policy.

But the two founded GOProud in April 2009, saying they felt important work representing gay conservatives was not being done by others.

“We exist to give voice to gay conservatives,” said Barron.

Barron said the group has not yet tabulated how much money it raised at last Saturday’s fundraiser, held at the private residence of PayPal founder Peter Thiel, raised. Thiel was also one of the co-hosts of the September 22 fundraiser with Mehlman and investment manager Paul Singer. That fundraiser took in $1.2 million to help pay for the litigation challenging California’s same-sex marriage ban, Proposition 8.

Esquire magazine reporter Marty Beckerman reported Coulter told the room that “gays are the molecular opposites of blacks” because “everybody likes the gays moving in next door.” To that, she added that same-sex marriage is “not a civil right” because “you’re not black” and because the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution “is about just the blacks.” She also told the group that the ideal for parents is “one mother, one father.” Repeating a line she’s used in other venues, Coulter said gays should be conservative because “gays are too stylish to work for the federal government” and because, “once [scientists] find the gay gene, guess who’s getting aborted?”

Beckerman reported mixed reaction to Coulter’s performance, He said some attendees—who paid $2,500 each to get in—laughed “uproariously at Coulter’s punch lines,” and went up afterwards to hug her and get their photos taken with her. Others, “especially the younger ones,” he said challenged her viewpoint during a question-and-answer session.

New York magazine noted that GOProud Chairman Barron himself questioned Coulter about conservative politicians who oppose same-sex marriage as harmful to the institution of marriage while exercising no-fault divorces for themselves. The magazine said Coulter acknowledged the hypocrisy.

Politico.com reporter Ben Smith estimated about 150 people attended the event. He characterized GOProud as “the tea party of the gay rights movement.” Barron apparently had no problems with that characterization. Smith quoted him as saying, “We’re Joe Miller, Log Cabin is Lisa Murkowski. We’re not interested in having a seat at the table as part of the establishment.”

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