Today, a couple of completely unrelated items were brought to my attention via Towleroad.com. The tread holding these to stories together is that they both make GOProud, an already bad-looking organization, look even worse than before.
Follow below the squiggly thingy for details.
The first story that came to my attention this morning was a little item that Towleroad picked up from the Washington Blade about an alleged attach on GOProud Executive Director Jimmy LaSalvia.
As reported by the Washington Blade:
“I was on my bike when I approached them,” LaSalvia told the Blade in an email. “Just as I got up to them, the assailant lunged off the sidewalk toward me on the street and delivered a punch across my chest. The momentum of my bicycling driving me into his fist and arm caused a shocking pain like I’ve never felt before,” he said.
“Just as I began to realize what was happening, I heard it. The words are still ringing in my ears as I write this today – ‘F__ faggot!’ LaSalvia said in his email. “It was clear to me in that moment that my sexual orientation had motivated this attack.”
LaSalvia said that after barely catching himself from falling to the ground, he reached into his backpack for his cell phone, with the thought of calling the police. That action prompted one of the teenagers accompanying the attacker to say, “Does he have a gun?” LaSalvia told the Blade.
The attacker and a few of the others with him “puffed up their chests and were clearly ready to continue the attack,” he said. But seconds later, the group fled the scene after he kept his hand inside his backpack, “allowing them to wonder if I was reaching for a gun.”
Now, I don't want to come off as being completely insensitive and hateful and if LaSalvia was actually attacked then he should use every legal recourse available to him to catch the perps and bring them to justice.
The problem I'm having with this story is that it's just a little too neat, a little too pat to make it past my BS meter. The scenario describing the young hoods (who, per the Washington Blade story, conveniently happened to be African American youths) as standing around for a few moments after wondering whether or not LaSalvia had a gun is probably the least believable for me.
According to one of the comments on Towelroad:
How interesting that when he first told the story there was absolutely NO mention of reaching into his backpack or anyone saying "Does he have a gun", then Chrissy Barron Tweets about how he wouldn't have been attacked had he had a gun and then PRESTO CHANGO LaSalvia suddenly remembers a different version of the story.
These guy really do live in an entirely different universe.
If that's actually the case, I cannot buy LaSalvia's story at all and can only assume that he's a little overly hungry for attention.
I'm going to wait and see if additional details come out before I officially call it but I still think it sounds suspicious.
In other news, GOProud co-founder and board member, Christopher Barron had an epic fail on CNN while being interviewed by Ali Velshi.
Velshi was questioning Barron on GOProud's possible support for voraciously anti-gay Michele Bachmann and why, since she's so opposed to gay rights would a gay political group support her.
Barron insists that GOProud's number 1 goal is to defeat Barack Obama in the 2012 election and that they would support any candidate they felt could do that.
This makes no sense to me as not only are we are all well aware of Bachmann's homophobia but President Obama, with all his faults, is still the one president who has done more in support of gay rights than any other. GOProud is apparently its own worst enemy...
Where the interview gets fun (around the 4:20 mark) is when Velshi inquires as to whether or not GOProud will be asking Congresswoman Bachmann about Bachmann & Associates and her role in it. That's where all hell breaks loose and Barron loses his cool. Velshi leaves him looking utterly foolish and frustrated.
My take on GOProud is that they're in existence soley for the purpose of pissing off the gay left. They have absolutely no policy merit, no standing amongst other conservatives and, most importantly, nearly zero credibility within the gay community. They also have a tendency to be unwittingly funny whenever they make public statements.
I just wish that organizations and people with more substance would get equal face time with the American public.