GO-Proud co-founder leaves Republican Party

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Former GO-Proud executive director and co-founder Jimmy LaSalvia announced today that he has left the Republican Party. The conservative gay rights activist announced the change on his blog, and tweeted, “Honestly, the @GOP should ask themselves, ‘How bad must it be if we’ve even lost Jimmy?'”

He also tweeted, “It’s time to focus my energy to help make our country better instead of trying to fix a dysfunction political party whose days are numbered.”

LaSalvia posted:

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.”

….

So, now I feel huge sense of freedom. I am an independent conservative. (That sounds much better than ‘gay Republican.’)