The Conservatice Political Action Conference and Gay Republicans

In the latest illustration of the strange new defintions of "conservativism," several "pillars of the conservative movement," as they are described by the New York Times(perhaps not the best authority on such things, admittedly, but still ...) have withdrawn from a major fundraising and organization conference over the issue of gay rights.

Their beef is that a group called GOProud has been allowed to cosponsor the affair. According to the Times,

some conservative pillars, including church-based groups like the Family Research Council, Concerned Women for America and Liberty University and others like the Heritage Foundation, are refusing to participate. They are angry that the gay organization, GOProud, has been given a seat at the planning table. These groups are implacable opponents of same-sex marriage, which they say GOProud implicitly endorses by saying that the question should be left to the states.

In years past, conservatives would say that any defense of states rights was key plank of the conservative and/or Republican platform. "Big government," in the form of federal intervention, is the bogie man of most conservative rhetoric. And such language certainly has been at the center of protests over the health care bill. So why the outrage? Why is it "conservative" to seek federal law over an essentially personal matter?