GOProud co-founder Jimmy LaSalvia has officially announced that he is abandoning the Republican Party due to what he sees as a “tolerance of bigotry.”
Today, I joined the ranks of unaffiliated voters,” he said in a post on his website Monday. “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,” he said.
GOProud was co-founded in April 2009 by Mr. LaSalvia and Christopher R. Barron as a tax exempt 527 organization that represents conservative homosexuals and their allies.
“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,” Mr. LaSalvia continued. “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.”
“So, now I feel huge sense of freedom. I am an independent conservative. (That sounds much better than ’gay Republican’),” he concluded.
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(h/t Mediaite)
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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