FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE : February 10, 2011

CONTACT: Mary Beth Hutchins at 703-683-5004

Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), reacts to the controversy surrounding GOProud's participation in CPAC:

"NOM's position on GOProud and CPAC is being misstated by many in the media and particularly even the conservative media. We want to clear the record.

We went to CPAC last year in good faith, knowing that GOProud was also attending. It was at CPAC we learned from repeated interviews they gave that GOProud leaders favor gay marriage. It's not who people are, it's the positions they take that concern us.

Now Erick Erickson points out that some key GOProud leaders also used to work for Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion provider, which may be of concern to many in the prolife community as well.

At NOM, we've repeatedly invited all people, including gay people, who support marriage as the union of husband and wife to join us in this great fight. There probably aren't a large number of gay folks who want to defend marriage, but they do exist and we welcome their participation at NOM, CPAC, or anywhere else.

I'd also like to point out that there is a difference between a party--which is an aggregation of voters to make a majority--and a movement. A movement has two choices: either it is based on coherent, core principles or it becomes just another political party. The conservative movement is at an inflection point about which of these two things it seeks to be."

See Erick Erickson's piece "This Is Too Much For Me" here.

To schedule an interview with Brian Brown, President, or Maggie Gallagher, Chairman, of the National Organization for Marriage, please contact Elizabeth Ray, [email protected] [email protected]@crcpublicrelations.com, (x130) or Mary Beth Hutchins, [email protected] [email protected]@crcpublicrelations.com, (x105) at 703-683-5004.

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