Chris Barron on Wednesday announced he
was stepping down as the chairman of gay GOP group GOProud.
The announcement comes less than a week
after the group outed
Rick Perry pollster Tony Fabrizio as gay and days after
conservative icon Andrew
Breitbart quit the group's advisory board over the incident.
“Given the tremendous growth and
success of GOProud in our first two and a half years of operation, we
are restructuring and expanding our Board to meet the needs of a
bigger organization,” Barron
said in a statement.
Barron added that he would continue to
run the organization's day-to-day management and take on the title of
chief strategist.
Co-founders Barron and Jimmy LaSalvia,
the group's executive director, outed Fabrizio in a series of tweets
after Perry released an anti-gay ad titled Strong in early
caucus state Iowa.
(Related: Rick
Perry heckled over anti-gay ad during Ames appearance.)
Lisa De Pasquale will succeed Barron as
chairman of the board. According to GOProud, De Paquale is the
former director of the Conservative Political Action Conference
(CPAC) and a book researcher.
“The board has 100% faith in the
leadership of Chris Barron and Jimmy LaSalvia,” De Pasquale said.