<p><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', 'Lucida Sans', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 32px;"> </span></p>
<div id="StoryTitle" class="storytitle" style="width: auto; height: 68px; padding-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 5px; border-bottom-color: #cccccc; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', 'Lucida Sans', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #003399; font-size: 18px; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 7px;">
<div id="reporter" class="reporter" style="width: auto; height: auto; padding-top: 2px; padding-bottom: 2px; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', 'Lucida Sans', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 10px; color: #333333; font-weight: normal;">Star Parker - Syndicated Columnist - 2/14/2011 10:15:00 AM<span style="vertical-align: middle; margin-left: 25px;"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php" target="_blank" style="color: #0e4d8b; background: inherit;"><img src="http://s9.addthis.com/button1-addthis.gif" border="0" alt="Bookmark and Share" width="125" height="16" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 9px; margin-bottom: 3px; margin-left: 0px;" /></a></span></div>
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<p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;" align="left"><img src="http://www.onenewsnow.com/uploadedImages/starparker.jpg" border="0" alt="Star Parker" title="Star Parker" hspace="3" vspace="3" width="78" height="117" align="left" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 9px; margin-bottom: 3px; margin-left: 0px;" /><a href="http://www.onenewsnow.com/Perspectives/archives.aspx?col=Star%20Parker" style="color: #0e4d8b; background: inherit;"><img src="http://www.onenewsnow.com/uploadedImages/Media/Images/columnists_archives_button.jpg" border="0" alt="columnists archives button" title="columnists archives button" hspace="3" vspace="3" width="95" height="75" align="right" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 9px; margin-bottom: 3px; margin-left: 0px;" /></a>CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, has been an annual gig for me for years. But this year I concluded it was not my place and I declined to participate in the various venues at the event for which I was invited.<br /> <br />Yes, the reason I declined was the inclusion of GOProud, a group identifying itself as representing "gay conservatives and their allies," as a sponsor of the event.</p>
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<p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;">And it's the reason why some of the nation's most important conservative organizations -- the Heritage Foundation, the American Family Association, Concerned Women of America, Family Research Council, Media Research Center, and the National Organization for Marriage -- <a href="http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=1267268" title="did not participate" style="color: #0e4d8b; background: inherit;">did not participate</a>.</p>
<p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;" align="left"><br />The founder and chairman of GOProud removed any doubt on my part that not participating was the correct decision by dismissing these groups as "losers," "clowns," and "not relevant."</p>
