As The GOP Doubles Down On Homophobia, Do Gay Republicans Have A Role To Play Any Longer?

Right wing hedge fund operator and vulture capitalist Paul Singer may be best known as one of the money bags behind Mitt Romney but the ardent defender of the prerogatives of the one percent and their right to rule without interference from government (he's been on an anti-Dodd Frank jihad, for example) is also one of the biggest supporters of bombing Iran and of gay equality inside the reaches of the Republican Party and its right-wing satellite groups. Odd combination? His son is gay and married his husband in 2009 and Singer is a Zionist... and a billionaire. Its all about him-- always.

Just under two years ago, late simmer, 2012, Singer gave his last check to GOProud, the extreme right-wing-- and very divisive-- gay organization he had been funding. As the Republican Party digs in its heels on gay reparative therapy, GOProud, which unofficially died when Singer pulled the financial plug, has now made it official. A group backing equal right for the LGBT community can't thrive among the bigots and hate-mongers that utterly dominate the right-wing of the Republican Party.

Although sane states have followed the lead of progressives like California state Senator Ted Lieu in banning the quackery of conversion therapy, no one has been able to get a straight answer if gay Republican political elites themselves have undergone conversion therapy. Since the Texas GOP is lining up behind it, maybe someone should ask closet case Rick Perry for an answer. Other tragic Republicans who may or may not have undergone conversion therapy who should comment on its effective include the two U.S. senators from South Carolina, lifelong gay bachelors Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott, not to mention Wyoming's John Barrasso, Mark Kirk, Miss McConnell and a dozen House members from gay wingnuts Aaron Schock (R-IL), Trent Franks (R-AZ) and Patrick McHenry (R-NC) to Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) and Adrian Smith (R-NE).

Under the new proposed plank, the Texas GOP would "recognize the legitimacy and efficacy of counseling, which offers reparative therapy and treatment for those patients seeking healing and wholeness from their homosexual lifestyle."

The American Psychological Association and other major health organizations have condemned such counseling, which generally try to change a person's sexual orientation or to lessen their interest in engaging in same-sex sexual activity. The groups say the practice should not be used on minors because of the danger of serious psychological harm.

But trying to strip the language from the Texas GOP platform could set off a contentious fight and result in altering the language even more. The therapy phrasing survived a key committee vote late Thursday, but hardliners had sought to change "homosexuality" in the platform to "sexual sins."

Also on the table is removing decades-old language that states, "homosexuality tears at the fabric of society." Davis said that was the only language his group sought to change at the convention, and that he still wanted to go home with that win.

The therapy language was inserted at the urging of Cathie Adams of Dallas, leader of the influential tea party group Texas Eagle Forum and a onetime chairwoman of the Texas Republican Party.

Adams, whose group backed tea party outsiders who dominated Texas Republican primary races this year, said she simply promoted language proposed by a man she said was helped by such therapy, which has been defended by some smaller groups, including the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality.

"He knows what he's talking about. He is one of those who has benefited," Adams said. "I think the majority of Texans feel that way too. It's not like this is mandatory. This is only a voluntary program."

Yesterday, Tim Mak, writing for the Daily Beast, covered the sad, messy GOProud implosion. "The decline of GOProud," he writes, "is a prime example of what happens to an organization that rises to prominence through confrontation-- and never bothers to do the grunt work needed to sustain the outfit, once the outrage dies down. It was feisty and controversial-- a Tea Party, of sorts, to the more establishment-minded Log Cabin Republicans." They may have decided to make it "official" this week, but what was left of the organization has been moribund since Singer, who had given them close to $600,000-- informed them they'd better find a new sugar daddy. Thegroup's founders, Christopher Barron and Jimmy LaSalvia, quit.

In the summer of 2013, LaSalvia and Barron sold GOProud’s brand name, one of the organization’s computers, a contact list, and some posters to three former interns, and stepped away from the day-to-day management of the group.

Matt Bechstein, now the executive director of what is left of GOProud, said they purchased it for less than three figures. Barron said it was a nominal amount, $1. “It certainly wasn’t fair market value,” Barron said.

In a way, GOProud had already died last summer. The former interns only filed the necessary paperwork to organize “GOProud 2.0” in January 2014. Bechstein had purchased a brand that was in bad shape.

“There was donor discontent, the organization was broke, they were having difficulty raising money, and they ruined just about every relationship possible,” Bechstein said, referring to the former management.

The future of GOProud, once a leading voice for gay conservatives, looks bleak. The organization still exists in theory, but it now faces the possibility of shutting down, changing its name, or changing its organizational type. “There’s high amounts of chaos and confusion,” he said, since any remaining donors have been spooked by reports that the group is closing down.

There’s no love lost between the former leadership and the current leadership.

“Most people assume GOProud died a year ago. GOProud was constantly part of the conversation, shaking things up. Over the last year… I never heard from GOProud. Quite frankly, I don’t know what they’ve done over the past year. I’ve seen nothing,” Barron said.

Countered Bechstein, “They’ve been antagonistic to me since Day One… we came to be the antithesis of Jimmy and Chris, who ruined the organization.”

GOProud first elbowed its way into the conservative movement in the spring of 2009, but struggled in its early days as a startup. Really, it was nothing more than Barron and LaSalvia and a Twitter account, crammed into a Capitol Hill basement office for which they paid $800 a month. The group’s first acts were small. Fundraising during its launch netted only about $3,000, LaSalvia said.

But GOProud’s prominence really emerged in 2010, after conservative activist Ryan Sorba denounced them from the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

“I’d like to condemn CPAC for bringing GOProud to this event,” Sorba told the audience at the annual conservative gathering, to a smattering of boos. “The lesbians at Smith College protest better than you. Bring it.”

LaSalvia, sitting outside the room, looked down at his phone. Just moments after Sorba’s rant, a $500 donation came into GOProud’s account. Many major news outlets at CPAC, eager to write about something other than the typical rotation of politicians coming up to speak on stage, covered Sorba’s outburst.

“That’s really when we got famous,” LaSalvia said. Momentum flowed from controversy. They spent their last few hundred dollars on a trip up to New York City, obtaining donor commitments that kept them alive.

That summer, they held a prominent event with Ann Coulter and some 150 supporters at the New York City apartment of billionaire PayPal founder Peter Thiel, which attendees nicknamed “Homocon.” Months later, GOProud targeted four congressional districts with an ad parodying the television show Real Housewives, targeting gay men and women on Bravo and Lifetime, even running the ad during the Project Runway finale.

The 2012 presidential cycle smothered GOProud, LaSalvia argued, saying that the organization’s endorsement of Mitt Romney was a low point. The support of a candidate who opposed same-sex marriage-- and the noise of the presidential campaign-- combined to make them feel sidelined.

“We were following, we were falling in line… no one was out front that year,” he said.

The highlight of that year, LaSalvia said, was when more than 900 people showed up to GOProud’s 2012 Republican convention party in Tampa Bay, at a gay bar.