Conservative event sparks pro-gay GOP angst

The organizers of the Western Conservative Summit, an annual conference featuring conservative leaders and politicians, are standing by a decision this week to decline exhibition space to the Log Cabin Republicans, a homosexual advocacy group.

The host of the summit, the Centennial Institute—a think tank based at Colorado Christian University in Lakewood, Colo.—said the advocacy group’s worldview and policy goals were “fundamentally at odds with what Colorado Christian University stands for.”

Media outlets helped turn the situation into the latest manufactured crisis for the homosexual agenda.

On Tuesday night, the Log Cabin Republicans of Colorado complained on its Facebook page that its paid booth at the Western Conservative Summit had been “rescinded.”

The group posted an email from Centennial Institute director John Andrews that explained the decision. “You and your members are very welcome to get tickets and attend, but we can’t officially have the organization as a partner, exhibitor, or advertiser,” Andrews wrote. “I’m sorry it has to be that way.”

Within hours, the Colorado Log Cabin Republicans sent out a press release by email. It stated, “After being invited and charged a $250 fee, the Colorado Log Cabin Republicans group was disinvited from Western Conservative Summit.”

By Wednesday morning, a reporter at The Denver Post, Lynn Bartels, had written an article saying the summit organizers had “disinvited a gay Republican group to attend its event this summer.” The Associated Press (AP) and The Colorado Statesman ran their own reports, and other media outlets carried the AP story.

But the Centennial Institute said it wasn’t a case of disinviting because it never specifically invited the Log Cabin Republicans. It said in a blog post Wednesday its practice is to decline exhibit space to groups whose policy goals conflict with its own, “whether it be higher taxes, climate extremism, disarmament, marijuana, abortion, gay marriage, abridgment of religious freedom, or the like.”

The Western Conservative Summit 2015 will be held in Denver in June. Many GOP contenders for president are among the confirmed speakers, including: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Ben Carson, former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. WORLD News Group is a Western Conservative Summit sponsor.

“We’ve got a biblical article of faith, and marriage is one man, one woman,” Andrews told me Thursday, explaining why he declined the Log Cabin Republicans’ application. “They have chosen to turn it into a national protest movement raining down on me and my staff.”

In what he calls an orchestrated “bully movement,” Andrews said he’s gotten a barrage of phone calls and online comments from people calling him a “hypocrite,” a “bigot,” or a person “from the Dark Ages.”

“Several people have called us the Taliban. … Where is the tolerance they talk about toward us?” Andrews said. “It really doesn’t seem fair that if we respect their sexual freedom they can’t respect our religious freedom.”

Michael Carr, secretary of the Colorado Log Cabin Republicans, admitted his group had received a “general invite” rather than a personal one. During a meeting of local conservatives, Andrews invited participants to exhibit at the summit, using a discounted partner rate of $250 when they applied online.

“We felt like we were invited, both individually and as an organization,” Carr said. His organization submitted an online application and payment for an exhibition booth earlier this week, even though they understood they were “at odds, policy-wise,” with Colorado Christian University and the Western Conservative Summit. It is the first year Colorado Log Cabin Republicans have applied for space at the conference.

“It’s a private organization. … We believe they have the right to not allow us there. But we also have the right to protest in the public square,” Carr said. “Our absence from that summit is going to be noted.”

Andrews said the meeting at which he issued a broad invitation had 40 or 50 people present, and any exhibit applications are subject to review as noted in the summit’s “Exhibitor Information Packet”. Andrews said he issued the Log Cabin Republicans a full refund.

Although the advocacy group may not formally promote their policy at the event, , Andrews said, members are still welcome to attend—as gays have done in past years: “Gay or straight … everybody is welcome.”

The Log Cabin Republicans have been turned down at conservative events before. Last summer, the Texas Republican Party denied the group a booth at its state convention.