Al Cardenas is making it clear he's not
a fan of gay GOP group GOProud.
The newly-elected chairman of the
American Conservative Union (ACU), which organizes the annual
Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), now says the group
was too rowdy at this year's event, suggesting the gay Republicans
might not be welcome at next year's gathering.
GOProud's presence at CPAC prompted
social conservatives to boycott the conference.
Several Republican lawmakers, including
South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint and Ohio Representative Jim Jordan,
and a smattering of socially conservative groups – the National
Organization for Marriage (NOM), FRC Action and Concerned Women for
America (CWA) – joined the boycott.
In
an interview with the website HumanEvents.com, Cardenas chided
the group for standing their ground.
“The problem is that GOProud didn't
help us any in being inclusive, because they used that platform to be
quite aggressive [outside CPAC]. They started taunting some of our
board members,” he said.
“The ideal GOProud participation
would have been, 'You know what, guys? This is an inclusive society.
We're as interested in these fiscal issues as you are. Fill your
website with fiscal issues that you're for and be a mainstream
discusser of issues. We just happen to have a different lifestyle.'
And if they'd done that, they would have laid the groundwork for
things that would have been pretty good.”
Previously, Cardenas has said he
opposed including GOProud because they advocate for gay marriage, a
claim GOProud Chairman Christopher Barron has denied.