CPAC’s organizers have stirred up some controversy by banning the gay conservative group GOProud from participating, in any official capacity, in this year’s festivities, which, somewhat ironically, are being held at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in Maryland.
One group that surely doesn’t mind the decision is NOM, the National Organization for Marriage, which withdrew from CPAC in 2010 after GOProud got an invite. But while they don’t care much for gay rights, NOM is willing, at least, to tolerate Gaylord.
“It’s not awkward,” an unamused NOM spokesman told us this morning at the group’s exhibition booth when we asked about the name. “The word gay existed long before we did.”
Asked whether he would have nevertheless preferred it had the nation’s most prominent gathering of conservatives taken place at the Extremely Heterosexual Convention Center, the spokesman said he’d be happy to answer any serious questions if we had them. Which is not a no.
Correction: An earlier version of this post abbreviated the National Organization for Marriage as NOW. We regret the error.
