Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin says
she's okay with gay GOP group GOProud's presence at the Conservative
Political Action Conference (CPAC) convention which opens Thursday.
The group's co-sponsorship of the event
prompted social conservatives to boycott 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) – have joined the boycott.
Frank Cannon, the president of the
American Principles Project, a group which is boycotting the event,
demanded Palin clarify her position on the group's participation
after she suggested
as much in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network
(CBN).
“The concern of conservatives is over
the participation of a group whose stated goals run at odds with that
of core conservative principles, not over debate over those issues,”
Cannon said in a statement. “Governor Palin should clarify her
comments by letting us know whether in her definition, traditional
marriage is a core component of conservatism.”
In an interview broadcast Wednesday on
Fox News, Palin replied: “I don't have a problem with different,
diverse groups that are involved in political discourse, and having a
convention to talk about what the answers are to their problems that
face America.”
She suggested that America is facing
more pressing issues.
“People are losing their jobs;
they're losing homes. We're still engaged in a war,” she said.
“There are so many life-changing, life-and-death issues out there
in front of us. You know, we'd better be concentrating on what is
really important here and not going kind of tit-for-tat as people are
positioning themselves for 2012.”
On Thursday, GOProud
responded that groups boycotting the event hate gay people.