CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Fresh off his trip to Tampa, Fla., for the Republican National Convention, Jimmy LaSalvia, co-founder and executive director of the Republican LGBT group GOProud, says he’s come to the Democratic National Convention to refocus attention on the issues he says are most important to Americans, gay or straight.

Jimmy LaSalvia of GOProud at the Charlotte Convention Center. Photo Credit: David Lari/QNotes.
“We’re going to see three days of the Democrats talking about everything they can except the Obama Administration’s failed record on jobs and the economy,” LaSalvia said while visiting the Charlotte Convention Center on Tuesday. “They are going to be trying to make it seem like the Republicans hate everybody — they hate the gays, they hate the blacks, they hate immigrants. I’m here to really just tell the truth and to rebut some of the things that you’ll hear from the podium the next few days.”

The economy, LaSalvia said, outranks other concerns highlighted at the convention this week, including the much-talked-about marriage equality plank in Democrats’ party platform.

“There’s nothing that Democrats can put in their platform that will hide the failed record of the Obama Administration on jobs and the economy,” he said. “They’re talking about everything but what’s important to the American people.”

The LGBT community’s concerns on the economic recession aren’t any different from other Americans, said LaSalvia.

“We’re talking about people’s survival here,” he said. “Obama has had four years and it’s time to realize that he’s a faile president and it’s time to replace him.”

LaSalvia declined to specifically address the contrast between the Democrats’ platform and that of the Republican Party, which calls marriage rights for same-sex couples an “an assault on the foundations of our society.”

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Matt Comer previously served as editor from October 2007 through August 2015 and as a staff writer afterward in 2016.