Back at the beginning of February I became amused by the swirling controversy after the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) accepted a sponsorship and participation from GOProud, a Log Cabin Republicans splinter group for LGBT Republicans and conservatives. Some folks praised CPAC’s inclusion of the group. Others, like Liberty University’s Law School, condemned it. In fact, Liberty Law pulled out of the CPAC event altogether, deciding instead to host their own two day conference/symposium in Lynchburg, Va.

Liberty’s legal symposium — entitled “Homosexual Rights and First Amendment Freedoms: Can They Truly Coexist?” — featured speakers such as ex-gay leader Alan Chambers of Exodus International; Julie Harren-Hamilton, president of the so-called National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuals; rabidly anti-gay “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” defender Elaine Donnelly and a host of academics and scholars from Liberty University and other right-wing “schools.”

All of this didn’t really surprise me. Liberty’s decision to pull out of the conference was just par for the course. But, I kept thinking as the news rolled out that these gay Republicans, trying so desperately to fit in where they aren’t wanted (dead or alive), was just kind of sad.

I took the blog and wrote:

Addressing the controversy of CPAC’s decision to allow GOProud to co-sponsor the conference, LaSalvia said, “It’s a diverse coalition, but we agree on a set core principles. There’s going to be disagreement on some things and there’s going to be agreement on most things.”

And this is where the LaSalvia starts taking his trip into the Twilight Zone. At least the Log Cabin Republicans are smart enough to know their party doesn’t like them, doesn’t want them and can’t stand their humanity. That’s why Log Cabin (sometimes) feverishly fights against anti-LGBT prejudice and discrimination. It’s also why Log Cabin had a (semblance of a) backbone and refused to endorse Bush for president in 2004.

LaSalvia and GOProud are working and living under this ludicrous illusion that conservatives and others involved with CPAC want them involved in their annual gay-baiting, gay-bashing, gay-hating extravaganza. A “diverse coalition” working in “agreement on most things”? Yeah. Right. And I’m the queen of England, too.

Now comes the time where I am forced to eat my words. Not only did GOProud go to CPAC, they were welcomed. Pretty much with open arms.

Alexander McCobin of Students for Liberty, speaking at a panel discussion of student leaders, praised CPAC and GOProud.

“In the name of freedom, I also thank the American Conservative Union for welcoming GOPride (sic) as a sponsor for this event,” McCobin said. “If what you truly care about is freedom and limited government and prosperity then this symbol is a step in the right direction and look to the student movement for support. A typical student’s response is to be socially tolerant and fiscally responsible. Students today recognize that freedom does not come in pieces. It is a single concept that we must defend at all times.”

With the exception of the occasional, overly loud “boo” from one or two in the crowd, McCobin’s remarks were met with enthusiasm and cheered. In comparison, anti-gay remarks from a fellow student leader received nary a wink nor a nod from the audience.

California Young Americans for Freedom’s Ryan Sorba lashed out in a tirade against gays, GOProud and the audience. As the boos mounted, Sorba walked off the stage. The panel moderator’s response came slowly, carefully. “Freedom of opinion,” she said cautiously.

Words and speeches aren’t the only positive news from this year’s CPAC. In a straw poll of nearly 2,400 of the 10,000 registered CPAC attendees (with 48 percent of respondents identifying as youth or students), only one percent of those surveyed said “protecting marriage” was a top priority for the conservative movement. Only one percent. That’s news.

Cheers for GOProud, positive poll numbers and contempt for anti-gay views — all signs that things really might be changing inside the conservative movement. Perhaps it is all indicative of a growing divide between true conservatives who value limited government and freedom and fundamentalist theocrats hell-bent on establishing their limited, narrow, anti-gay view of God on the entire nation.

So, with blushing cheeks and a head hung low, I issue a mea culpa. It looks like gay GOPers might not be living in the Twilight Zone after all, and maybe, just maybe, there might be hope for a real “Big Tent” GOP in the end.