Gay conservative group endorses Mitt Romney

A national group of gay conservatives has endorsed presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, the organization announced Wednesday.

The executive board for GOProud, a group founded by two former members of the Log Cabin Republicans, Christopher Barron and Jimmy LaSalvia, voted Tuesday to make an official endorsement.

Founded in 2009 with both gay and straight members, GOProud ran ads against Democrats in the midterm elections and is preparing another ad campaign on behalf of Romney this cycle.

"GOProud is prepared to commit significant resources to help make Mitt Romney the next president of the United States," said Lisa De Pasquale, interim chair of the GOProud board of directors and the former director of the Conservative Political Action Conference.

At the group's board meeting Tuesday, two members—one of whom was Barron, the group's former chairman—voted against endorsing Romney, said GOProud.

LaSalvia, GOProud's executive director, said the organization "respects" the fact that not everyone on the board agreed with the decision.

"We don't agree with Gov. Romney on every single issue—indeed, we disagree strongly with him on his support for a federal marriage amendment and we have urged Romney publicly to take bolder and more conservative stances on tax reform, entitlement reform and spending," LaSalvia said. "Given the vote on our board, obviously not everyone in our organization will agree with this endorsement, and we respect that."

Barron is currently representing Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson as a spokesman and press agent, and has personally endorsed his campaign.