Schlapp, who leads the American Conservative Union, was blasted on social media for a March 6 Twitter post in which he suggested Thomas “deserves our compassion,” Mediate reported.
“No matter what one thinks of Lia’s ability to swim with women,” Schlapp wrote, referring to the male student’s female name, “her story deserves our compassion.”
“No, it doesn’t,” Blaze writer Matt Walsh bluntly replied. “Also, if you’re playing the ‘preferred pronoun’ game you’ve already lost. You’ve surrendered reality to the Left. There’s nothing left to fight for.”
Schlapp’s comment also solicited online replies -- none of them complimentary -- by other conservative activists including Erick Erickson, Michael Malice, Rod Dreher, Allie Beth Stuckey, and Liz Wheeler, the Mediate story pointed out.
Reacting to the controversy, Rob Chambers of AFA Action says there is a distinction to be made between being compassionate and telling the truth.
“The Bible tells us that people have exchanged the truth for a lie. They're believing something that's not true,” he tells AFN. “And to say it's compassionate, to embrace a lie, is not biblical and it's not compassionate."
What is likely happening behind the scenes, Chambers advises, is Schlapp knows the national Republican Party is being influenced by the Log Cabins Republicans, the GOP homosexual lobbying group, and he is responding to that pressure because the group is involved in CPAC.
“And so Matt Schlapp is playing to that base,” Chambers says, “however small they may be."
During the pushback over his comments, Schlapp jumped into a Twitter debate (pictured at right) with attorney Jenna Ellis after she wrote, “It’s sad to see CPAC leadership and the GOP establishment cave to the LGBT agenda.”
“Jenna,” Schlapp replied, “all I am saying is in the end trans people deserve our love and compassion.”
Schlapp went on to suggest the Right should defend “girls sports” from competing against men but, he added, “remember that all people deserve respect. Kinda simple.”
Ellis wasn’t done, however, and pointed out that Schlapp had called the biological male “her” and was now demanding “love and compassion” for Thomas.
“Love and compassion,” she wrote, “requires speaking truth.”
Schlapp then suggested Ellis was “upset” with CPAC because she was not invited to speak there.
Editor's Note: AFA Action is an affiliate of the American Family Association, the parent organization of the American Family News Network, which operates AFN.net.
