Update 8:10 PM This is from David Badash:

At this afternoon’s GOP debate, during which five candidates are vying to be elected GOP Chair, the second question, after the obligatory, “What would you focus on?,” came from a representative of the Susan B. Anthony List, Marjorie Dannenfelser, who said that the GOP should not have “some sort of truce on social issues.” She claimed that 80% of Republicans support traditional marriage, and added, “certain Republican elites try to portray this large majority as being on the wrong side of history.” She asked, “on behalf of National Organization for Marriage… what is your best 30 second case for the defense of marriage between one man and one woman?”

The answers were the usual claptrap: Steele called the traditional family the “ideal,” another talked about judges re-writing the Constitution, blah, blah, blah…

(In an appalling act of deference to her husband, candidate Ann Wagner affirmed her fidelity and said she has been “I guess happily married for twenty-four years, I don’t know, I guess you’ll have to ask him,” and motioned to her husband.)

But the critical point here is that the Republican National Committee has opened itself up to being in the vise of NOM, whose major funding comes from the Mormon Church (LDS) as well as other “religious” organizations, and the Susan B. Anthony List, a major right-wing extremist group, and the first real question on the isssues was on same-sex marriage.

The other day, I published a post pondering the question, can gays have a place within the Conservative Movement, and by Conservative Movement, I meant the GOP. Well, at least for the folks wanting to be chair of the GOP, the answer is a very big and emphatic “NO”!

#SmallTentsYouCanBelieveIn – Good As You:: Gay and Lesbian Activism With a Sense of Humor.

Associated video: http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2011/01/debate-watch-100-of-rnc-chair.html