CPAC Bans Pro-Family Group MassResistance as Exhibitor – LaBarbera Urges Decision Be Reversed

Folks, last week I was stunned to learn that CPAC, the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, had reversed itself and banned the pro-family organization MassResistance from having an Exhibition Table. This is the same CPAC which now is allowing homosexual activist Republicans–the Log Cabin Republicans, to be Exhibitors. MassResistance is run by my good friend, Brian Camenker, who is a hero for standing up to homosexual and transgender activists for over the last 25 years and never backing down.

The same cannot be said of CPAC. It is simply unconscionable for a “conservative” organization to welcome in homosexual activists while banishing the leading national grassroots organization fighting the LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Queer) lobby. That is why I have called on the American Conservative Union, which runs CPAC, to reverse its decision and allow MassResistance to have a booth.

AFTAH’s predecessor, the newsletter Lambda Report, was launched at CPAC 25 years ago, so this latest politically correct absurdity really hurts personally. As we predicted, out-and-proud homosexuality is now corrupting conservatism and Christianity; it is incompatible with both. After hearing of the action against my friend, I have applied and paid for an Exhibitors Booth at CPAC.  We’ll see what happens. In the meantime, please contact ACU and urge them to reverse this terrible decision.

American Conservative Union phone: (ACU sponsors CPAC): 202-347-9388

ACU Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/CPACNews/

ACU Board of Directors: http://conservative.org/board/

Thanks for you commitment to stand for Truth! — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH; Twitter: @PeterLaBarbera

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Here’s the full MR story:

MassResistance table BANNED from CPAC – after having been accepted. Because of our 2015 comments about the “culture war”

But LGBT group “Log Cabin Republicans” is allowed!

Is the “Conservative Political Action Conference” really conservative?

February 13, 2018, by Mass Resistance

The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), the oldest and largest annual “conservative” conference in America, has abruptly banned MassResistance from having an exhibit at its 2018 session. The conference begins next week, running Feb. 21-24. CPAC had officially approved MassResistance for a table on January 29, after an involved vetting process.

But last week CPAC Executive Director Dan Schneider notified MassResistance that the decision has been reversed because of our Biblical approach to fighting the “culture war” (particularly the transgender agenda in public schools) as described in a 2015 speech by MassResistance president Brian Camenker. (See below.)

What is CPAC?
CPAC is huge. Every year it attracts thousands of people from across the US. Over the years, numerous major political figures and presidential candidates have spoken at CPAC, starting with Ronald Reagan.

CPAC goes to great lengths to present itself to the mainstream media as the gathering place for conservatism in America. CPAC and its parent group American Conservative Union (ACU), state that they are “America’s premier conservative voice” and that “ACU defines conservatism” (their emphasis).

But that is very deceiving. Similar to the direction of the GOP establishment, in recent years CPAC has become more libertarian-oriented and pro-LGBT – and hardly any pro-family groups have had exhibits or been sponsors. This seems to mesh with the attendees: approximately half are 18-24, and clearly products of modern culture.

For the past three years (including this year) the radical homosexual group Log Cabin Republicans (LCR) has been a sponsor and exhibitor at CPAC. (Prior to that, another homosexual group called GOProud was an official exhibitor in 2009 and 2010.)

LCR pushes hard to homosexualize the Republican Party and have LGBT officials and judges appointed. They fight for LGBT “anti-discrimination” laws that are used to punish Christian businesses. They’ve pushed hard to force open homosexuality – and recently transgenders – into the U.S. military. They placed an ad in USA Today to strongly denounce the 2016 GOP platform committee for supporting traditional marriage. They brag that they are “creating change.”

In 2016 and 2017 the group Atheist Voter had a table at CPAC. (In 2015, its parent organization, American Atheists, was granted a main stage speech.) The group pushes for God-less government policies, removal of “Christian ideology” from all government, repeal of religious exemptions from onerous LGBT laws, and more reporting requirements on churches. They also support the LGBT agenda, abortion “rights,” and are “fighting abstinence-only until marriage sex education.”

Many of the conference speakers, such as former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson (speaking this year) are pro-LGBT Libertarians. Marijuana legalization groups were CPAC exhibitors in 2015.

How groups get approved by CPAC – including MassResistance
MassResistance registered for a table at CPAC on January 8, six weeks before the conference. We were told that the “approval process” could take 5-7 working days, but to go ahead and make airline and hotel reservations, etc. anyway.

We waited two weeks with no answer. Then on Jan. 24 a conference call was set up to discuss “your organization and your plans for CPAC.” It was with CPAC’s events coordinator and Dan Schneider, the Executive Director. He said he had never heard of MassResistance.

We described the history of MassResistance and the kind of activism we do. We were very up-front about our plans for CPAC. We were going to promote our book, The Health Hazards of Homosexuality, and similar materials. We told Schneider we believe that CPAC’s large constituency of younger people had not been sufficiently exposed to the pro-family message, and he agreed. He said he would like pro-family groups to come to CPAC.

Schneider said that there are four criteria for a group to be approved:

1. The applicant organization must stand for at least one conservative/right-of-center proposition
2. The applicant organization must not exist primarily for a liberal purpose
3. The applicant organization must be legitimate (no overnight pop-ups, no funding by shadowy entities, staff and officers must be philosophically right of center)
4. The applicant organization cannot be disrespectful of either ACU or CPAC

We told him that it was hard to believe that the Log Cabin Republicans would pass this (in light of criterion #2) since they clearly exist to homosexualize the Republican Party and push the LGBT agenda in government and society. (Schneider answered that LCR’s support for the Second Amendment was important in their being approved!)

He told us that there is a “CPAC Advisory Council” which includes Family Research Council (FRC) that decides whether a group passes. Schneider told us that Family Research Council had voted to approve Log Cabin Republicans because LRC passes all four criteria. Obviously, this shocked us, but that’s what we were told. He added that there are “gay” employees at both Family Research Council and the Heritage Foundation.

On January 29, MassResistance was officially notified by CPAC that we were approved. So we paid for our table and continued with our plans to attend.

CPAC changes its mind!
But on Thursday afternoon, Feb. 8, we got a phone call from Dan Schneider. He told us that he had decided to rescind our approval. He said it was because of remarks made by Brian Camenker, president of MassResistance, in a video posted in 2015.

The video is of a panel discussion at the Stand4Truth Conference in Salt Lake City in Nov. 2015. It’s titled, “The Truth About Adulterated Doctrine” – how flawed theology subverts the pro-family battles. It includes Dr. Michael Brown, Pastor Dave Welch, Stephen & Janice Graham, and Brian Camenker. It was moderated by Sandy Rios, American Family Association radio host and former president of Concerned Women for America.

In the discussion, Camenker describes the latest chilling horrors of the pro-transgender policies that school officials in Massachusetts are imposing on children, how parents are kept in the dark, and how anyone who disagrees will be punished. His discussion of the transgender agenda in schools continues later when there are questions from the audience.

One of the audience questions involved how we should treat our adversaries in this battle. This brings up a major division in the pro-family movement. How should we react to these school officials who are pushing this evil on innocent, vulnerable children, which could affect their lives forever? Or to a librarian who brings in a cross-dresser in order to confuse 4-year-olds? Or doctors who enthusiastically help confused and deluded teenagers “change” their sex?

Two of the panelists stated that we should only deal with those school officials and others “respectfully,” telling them the “truth in love.”

Camenker said that he disagrees with that. This is a culture war, he said, not a church service. If you want them to actually stop, you have to mean business, including being “insulting and degrading” to these sleazy people if necessary. “I think that we’re misguided in our approach sometimes,” Camenker said. Sandy Rios then interjected, agreeing with Camenker. “I actually think you’re right, Brian. I think that evangelicals have gotten a little bit soft and not understood warfare.”

In other words, we must choose between saving children and pandering to a terribly flawed theology which, according to many prominent Christians activists, masks a fear of confronting the LGBT movement.

(And as so many pro-family conservatives know, the kind of hateful, vulgar, profane vitriol – including death threats – that LGBT activists regularly use against us is something the LGBT movement has no problem with at all. And it’s something that pro-family moderates are afraid to talk about.)

VIDEO: Panel – The Truth about Adulterated Doctrine (2015)
See sections with Camenker:
On the transgender movement in schools: 28:00 – 42:30
More on transgender movement & discussion of theology: 1:02:00 – 1:09:45
(And it’s well worth watching the entire panel discussion!)

Length: 1:12:37

“I’m uncomfortable with that language,” Dan Schneider told MassResistance. (He may also have been upset with the straightforward language from Leviticus condemning homosexuality as an abomination, referenced by both Dr. Brown and Camenker.)

The truth is that it’s radical LGBT groups who are “uncomfortable” with the language, and they have whined about it ever since. Within days of that 2015 panel discussion, LGBT websites went ballistic. Introducing transgender issues to children is part of “LGBT rights” in their eyes, and Camenker was saying this should be confronted strongly.

How did Schneider even stumble upon that 2015 video? It’s only being publicized by radical LGBT and far-left groups. So who told the CPAC Executive Director? It wasn’t publicly known that we were registered. We hadn’t mentioned it publicly. One can only surmise that LGBT activists allied with CPAC (possibly even CPAC employees) brought it to their attention. It’s a very disturbing thought, to be sure.

More questions for CPAC
Camenker then asked Schneider if he was “uncomfortable” with the things that the Log Cabin Republicans are doing, and their goals for America. He was not.

His decision stands, he said. He added that CPAC would reimburse us for any money we lost by canceling our plans. In a bit of added insult, he invited us to pay the individual entrance fees and attend CPAC as regular attendees. We politely declined.

We asked him if any other pro-family groups were having tables at CPAC this year. He said that there weren’t right now, but that the Family Research Council was expected to get one soon. (This was about a week and a half before it starts.) Sure enough, within a few days Family Research Council (FRC) was suddenly listed as a sponsor with a table! This is very strange, because generally a major organization like FRC would sign on several months in advance, not just a few days before.

What does all this mean?
Nothing in Camenker’s comments is contrary to conservative principles!

It became very clear to us that CPAC does not want to offend their pro-LGBT constituency by allowing a group that insists we’re in a serious “culture war” (rather than a “political disagreement”) against those efforts to radically re-order society.

Is this really what conservatism in America has become? What group gets to claim it defines conservatism? Has FRC, whom we all have respected, caved in? Is MassResistance the only pro-family group that’s publicly standing up to powerful sexual-radical movement?

Conservative?? In 2016 the Log Cabin Republicans paid for this ad in USA Today attacking the GOP’s stand for traditional marriage. But CPAC and their “Advisory Council” don’t have a problem with this.

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