GOProud Has No Position On Gay Marriage?

Jimmy LaSalvia, the executive director of gay GOP group GOProud, says his group has no position on gay marriage aside from opposing the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the 1996 law that bans federal agencies from recognizing the legal marriages of gay and lesbian couples and allows states to ignore such marriages, and a federal amendment that would define marriage as a heterosexual union.

Social conservatives mounted a boycott of this year's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) because of the gay Republican's co-sponsorship of the event.

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.

Al Cardenas, the newly-elected chairman of the American Conservative Union (ACU), which annually organizes the event, has said groups that advocate for gay rights, particularly gay marriage, would not be welcome at next year's event.

In an interview with CNN, LaSalvia insisted his group has no position on gay marriage.

“I know that it may seem funny that a gay group doesn’t have a position on this issue, but that’s the case,” LaSalvia said. “GOProud only works on federal issues. We believe that marriage and family laws should be the province of the states – as has been the case since the founding of our nation. We believe that states should be free to make decisions regarding marriage and family laws without the intervention of the federal government. The decisions of each individual state should be respected by the federal government. This is the essence of federalism. Accordingly, we support the repeal of DOMA, and oppose any effort to pass a Federal Marriage Amendment to the US Constitution.”