Breitbart Quits Advisory Board of GOP Gay Group Over Outing of Perry Pollster

FILE -- June 7, 2011: Conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart (AP)

BigGovernment.com publisher Andrew Breitbart has announced he is resigning from the advisory board of GOProud, a group of gay conservatives, after its leaders reportedly "outed" the chief pollster to Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry.

GOProud ran with the accusation that Tony Fabrizio was gay after the Perry campaign ran an ad last week making a point about a country that allows gays to serve in the military but doesn't allow kids to pray in school.

After the ad ran, GOP Proud Executive Director Jimmy LaSalvia tweeted out a nasty statement, calling Fabrizio a "f----t" for supporting a campaign that would run the ad.

After being denounced for “outing” Fabrizio, LaSalvia's organization on Friday issued a statement saying his group is opposed to exposing people unwilling to admit their homosexuality but "in the case of Tony Fabrizio, top pollster and chief strategist for the presidential campaign of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, we did not believe there was any question about his sexual orientation -- nor did the reporters who called us to ask about his involvement in Perry's anti-gay campaign strategy."

LaSalvia then added that "Tony Fabrizio is not the victim here," and repeated his assertion that Fabrizio shouldn't be part of a campaign that issues an "anti-gay" ad. He also called Perry's campaign "desperate" for trying to "employ a strategy that plays to the cheap seats and appeals to the worst in people."

"Rick Perry should be embarrassed and the people around him who are the architects of this strategy, particularly people like Tony Fabrizio, should be ashamed," LaSalvia said.

The statement was apparently the last straw for Breitbart, who said he is stepping down from GOProud's advisory board.

"I have a zero tolerance attitude toward the intentional infliction of vocational and family harm by divulging the details of an individual's sexual orientation as a weapon of political destruction," Breitbart wrote on his website. "As an 'advisory board member' I was not consulted on this extreme and punitive act. Clearly, there are more productive means to debate controversial ideas and settle conflicts.

"Therefore, I cannot in good conscience stand with GOProud. I still stand by gay conservatives who boldly and in the face of much criticism from many fronts fight for limited government, lower taxes, a strong national defense as well as the other core conservative principles," Breitbart said.