GOProud to Host 'Homocon' During Party's Tampa Convention

Officials from GOProud, a gay conservative group, announced that they will be holding an event during the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla. called Homocon. The event sports a number of guest speakers, including the editor of the conservative news and opinion website Breitbart, Dana Loesch.

"Homocon 2012 will be the must have ticket for the RNC," Jimmy LaSalvia, executive director and co-founder of GOProud, said in a statement. "Our special guests will be a who's who of the conservative movement."

Other speakers include author and CNN contributor Mary Matalin, former U.S. spokesman at the United Nations Richard Grenell (who was briefly the foreign policy spokesman for Mitt Romney's campaign) and Will Cain, an analyst for the Blaze website.

Loesch, who hosts "The Dana Show," a radio talk show, recently harped on a Christian listener who defended same-sex marriage and said that she "hates Christ" for backing marriage equality, Equality Matters reported.

"When it comes to gay marriage - to be frank, I believe the left uses gay people as pawns," Loesch once said. "I believe they use gay people and lesbians pawns against conservatives. They don't care about rights; otherwise, they would be more critical of how they're oppressed and murdered in Islamic countries. But it's used as a wedge between citizens and the church."

Although Mary Matalin has said that gay marriage is not a civil right, she is considered part of the nascent movement in the GOP to move beyond the issue. Prominent gay Democratic Party operative David Mixner has said of her, "Mary Matalin, without a doubt, is one of the strongest voices within the Republican Party advocating equal rights for lesbians and gay men."

Will Cain, who also writes for the National Review, has described himself as a "pro-gay marriage supporter."

GOProud officials, who announced that they would be supporting Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney as reported earlier by EDGE, also said they will announce more speakers in the weeks leading up to the event.

"Homocon 2012, like our previous events, will be more than just a party. It is an opportunity to show where the conservative movement is - and where it is going - in regards to the inclusion of gay people," Christopher R. Barron, GOProud co-founder and chief strategist said in a statement. "The left would like America to believe that it has a monopoly on gay people, and that only big government policies are good for gay Americans. Worse, the left wants America to believe that all conservatives are anti-gay. Nothing could be further from the truth."