State Sen. Lucia Guzman, D-Denver, right, joins other lawmakers as Gov. John Hickenlooper in 2013 signs into law a bill allowing same-sex couples to form civil unions. (Craig F. Walker, The Denver Post)
State Sen. Lucia Guzman won’t participate on a legislative panel that has ties to the Western Conservative Summit because the influential organization , the Log Cabin Republicans, to set up an exhibit.
“I cannot in good conscious attend the panel … so long as the voice of gay and lesbian conservatives is stifled,” she said Thursday in a letter to John Andrews, the summit chairman and panel organizer.
Guzman, a Denver Democrat who is gay, said she had agreed to participate May 11 to discuss the 2015 legislative session, which ends May 6. The think tank is part of Colorado Christian University in Lakewood, which sponsors the summit. for telling members of the Colorado Log Cabin Republicans the group could not purchase exhibit space at the summit June 26-28 in Denver at the Colorado Convention Center.
Sen. Lucia Guzman, D-Denver (CGA)
The Colorado Republican Party has since invited the Log Cabin Republicans, one of its affiliates, to share its booth space, which Andrews has said is OK. That wasn’t enough for Guzman.
“I have been an advocate for LGBT rights since before I became a legislator,” she said in her letter to Andrews. “I do not believe in discriminatory policies intended to dismiss gay and lesbian voices and it is for these reasons I cannot attend an event that not only excludes LGBT citizens, but LGBT citizens of their own political party.”
Andrews told The Denver Post last week that the Log Cabin Republicans “advocate contrary to our agenda and our core beliefs.” The group supports same-sex marriage.
But he pointed out that the summit has had conservative gay speakers and that individual members of the Log Cabin Republicans were welcome to attend. The summit has become a must-attend for top conservatives and presidential hopefuls.
“In your organization’s recent press release on the issue, you state that, ‘we respect their right to compete in the public square, but we decline to sell them space for such advocacy at our event,'” Guzman wrote. “We agreed long ago in America that the denial of goods, services, or participation in our political discourse simply because of your beliefs, the color of your skin, your religion, gender, or sexual preference, is not parallel with our nation’s vision of liberty and equality for all.”
