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GOProud founder leaving Republican party in part over ‘tolerance of bigotry’

GOProud founder leaving Republican party in part over ‘tolerance of bigotry’
Jimmy LaSalvia
Jimmy LaSalvia

Jimmy LaSalvia, the co-founder and former executive director of GOProud, a U.S. political action group representing gay conservatives, announced Tuesday he was leaving the Republican party due in part to the “tolerance of bigotry in the GOP.”

I’ve said for a long time that both John McCain and Mitt Romney won independents, but lost the election, because most independents used to be Republicans. They were Republicans, but now they are too embarrassed to formally affiliate with a party that’s lost its way.

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.

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.

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. 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.

So I changed my voter registration today – “No Party.”

LaSalvia now calls himself an “independent conservative,” which he says sounds much better than ‘gay Republican.’”

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