Brokeback Mountain producers sponsor right-wing conference that ‘honoured’ homophobic reality star

The film company behind Brokeback Mountain and The Danish Girl is helping sponsor a right-wing conference that previously honoured the homophobic star of Duck Dynasty.

Focus Features found success producing the 2005 film Brokeback Mountain, one of the watershed films to portray homosexuality. The company also distributed Oscar-winning transgender biopic The Danish Girl, which stars Eddie Redmayne.

However, despite the LGBT film-making niche, a new film distributed by Focus Features heads in an entirely different direction.

Upcoming release The Young Messiah, a Biblical tale starring Sean Bean, is listed as a ‘Supporting Sponsor’ for the 2016 Conservative Political Action Conference, which begins tomorrow.

A sponsorship pack for the event states that it costs $25,000 to become a ‘Supporting Sponsor’, entitling brands to advertising and exhibit at the event, as well as favourable social media posts and ‘VIP hospitality’ vebefuts,

The large Republican event has previously been a rallying point for the Republican anti-LGBT movement.

The event attracted controversy last year by giving a ‘free speech’ award to the homophobic star of Duck Dynasty for his comments.

Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson was suspended from his A&E reality show for less than two weeks in 2013, when he questioned in an interview to GQ why gay men would prefer “a man’s anus” over a vagina.

However Robertson – who claims that sexually transmitted infections are God’s punishment for gays – was honoured with the ‘Freedom of Speech’ award at CPAC in 2015.

At CPAC in 2014, Tea Party Republican Michelle Bachmann also rallied against the ‘gay agenda’ in her speech.

The line-up for this year includes Republican Steve King (who offered to marry gay people to his lawnmower), Presidential hopeful Ted Cruz (who has pledged to overturn equality laws), and Rick Santorum (who… well, he’s Rick Santorum.)

The Log Cabin Republicans, a Republican gay group, spoke out against CPAC in previous years when they were blocked from sponsoring the event on the grounds that they weren’t conservative enough.

However, the group has been accepted as a sponsor in 2016 after shifting away from its stance on LGBT anti-discrimination bills.

The Log Cabin Republicans appear to have spent $7,500 to become a ‘Participating Sponsor’, two tiers below the ‘Supporting Sponsor’ level.

PinkNews has reached out to Focus Features for comment.

• Drag
• Jan 03

Start your engines! All 16 seasons of RuPaul’s Drag Race US ranked from worst to best