Gay-Basher Ann Coulter Named Honorary “Gay Icon” by GOProud

As demonstrated by her 2009 complaint that the openly white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens (which has called black people “a retrograde species of humanity”) had been unfairly branded as racist, far-right polemicist Ann Coulter has a remarkable ability to ignore screamingly obvious realities.

Perhaps that’s the personality trait that appeals to GOProud, which bills itself as “the only national organization of gay conservatives and their allies.” On Tuesday, the group announced that Coulter – who once called former Vice President Al Gore “a total f--” and declared presidential candidate John Edwards a “f-----”– had accepted an invitation to serve as honorary chair of its advisory council.

This is not the first time Coulter has affiliated with the group. Last September, she headlined “Homocon,” described in a GOProud press release as a “party to celebrate gay conservatives.”

“I can promise you, Homocon 2010 will be a hell of a lot more fun than chaining yourself to the White House fence,” GOProud Chairman Christopher Barron said in the press release.

Good thing he set such a low standard. Based on a report by Talking Points Memo, Coulter’s speech was not exactly the type of smashing success you’d expect to result in an invitation to serve as honorary advisory council chair.

“Marriage is not a civil right,” Coulter told the roomful of gay conservatives. “You're not black.” She also said GOProud was a natural ally of anti-abortion groups, because, “as soon as they find the gay gene, you know who's getting aborted.”

Even if it was more fun than being chained to the White House fence (a point that seems debatable), this is not exactly the kind of rhetoric you’d expect of a “gay icon” – which, according to GOProud’s press release announcing Coulter’s new position, will be her official title.

But desperate times call for desperate measures, and GOProud is nothing if not desperate. The group suffered a humiliating rebuff this year when the American Conservative Union announced that it would not in the future be welcome at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Many hardliners found GOProud’s presence at the conference so repugnant that they boycotted the event.

As it happens, it was at CPAC 2007 that Coulter famously said, “I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word ‘f-----,’ so I — so kind of an impasse, can’t really talk about Edwards.”

In what can only be read as a preemptive defense of the group’s unfathomable decision to make Coulter its official Gay Icon, GOProud’s chair said, “Politics is full of the meek, the compromising and the apologists – Ann, like GOProud, is the exact opposite of all of those things. We need more Ann Coulters.”

At least one part of his evaluation is accurate: For all her many deplorable qualities, Ann Coulter is neither meek nor compromising. It is simultaneously ironic and pathetic that by continuing to associate with Coulter, GOProud proves that it lacks the exact qualities it claims to admire in her.